Breaking News: Was Dan Markel Trayvoned? Neighbors Frustrated over TPD Stonewalling; Murdered, White FSU Law Prof’s Tallahassee Neighborhood Had for 3-4 Weeks been Hit by Massive Doses of Diversity Crime, Just Like George Zimmerman’s, in Run-Up to Martin’s Failed Murder Attempt

 

The Markels and their first son, nicknamed “Cubby,” on the day of his bris (circumcision), August 6, 2009
 

[Previously, on this crime, at WEJB/NSU:

“Tallahassee: White FSU Law Professor, Dan Markel, Shot and Killed; WTXL Provides No Information on Murder, and No Reader Comments, but Lots of Rules for Comments”; and

“Dan Markel 1972-2014: White FSU Law Prof was Murdered in Home Invasion; Media: Tallahassee PD Refused to Give Any Info; Everything Came from Blog, Via Vic’s Friend (Update)”.]
 

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

I found the following article, hot off the presses, while looking for confirmation of two reader comments by a person or persons feigning expert knowledge, asserting that Dan Markel and his wife, Wendi Adelson, had divorced. Those comments were incorrect. The first time I searched under Markel’s name, the autocomplete added, “divorce,” but all that meant was that his name frequently showed up on a page that also contained the “d”-word. The Markels had not divorced, but were in the process of divorcing, which is a big difference. [The Boss and I are in “the process of divorcing” a couple of times a year! However, I suppose things are different when you marry a dentist’s daughter!]

Another reader was peeved, because I hadn’t mentioned that Dan Markel was a Jew. I knew very well that he was a Jew, and had already copied a photograph of father, mother, and their first newborn son, on the day of the latter’s bris, but chose to hold that pic back for a later item. However, the issue of the vic’s religion was irrelevant.

People are bound to attack me for connecting this to the Trayvon Martin’s failed murder attempt on George Zimmerman, but unlike the issue of the vic’s religion, this is hugely relevant. I’m not going to explain why that is, because if it isn’t obvious to you, you’re a lost cause and nothing will make it clear to you.

Since Markel’s killer (or killers) is still at large, the TPD’s stonewalling puts the entire community at risk. What that neighborhood needs, more than anything, is a neighborhood watch commander!

Because Markel was a law professor (and his widow a lefty), and law faculties and students are either pc with a vengeance, or terrified into silence by those that are, and by the drive-by, Gawker-style, pc blog, Above the Law, all you’ll hear about this crime from them is about the curse of “gun violence,” and need to disarm law-abiding whites.

There is one, non-diverse possible cause of Dan Markel’s death, but I’m not going to even speculate on that.
 

Dan Markel's death, lack of information, frustrate neighbors
Questions remain in death of prominent FSU professor Dan Markel
Sean Rossman
9:32 p.m. EDT, July 20, 2014
Tallahassee Democrat

Dan Markel's neighbor on Trescott Drive heard a "loud bang" Friday morning. Minutes later, Markel, 41, would be rushed to the hospital, and in the early hours of Saturday, the prominent legal scholar was dead.

That's about all the shocked residents of the quiet Betton Hills neighborhood know two days after the shooting death of the well-known professor at the Florida State University College of Law. The Tallahassee Police Department has released little information on the circumstances surrounding his death and haven't identified any suspects, according to Tenitris McInnis, TPD spokeswoman. Just before midnight Saturday TPD acknowledged Markel died, hours after media reported it and the FSU College of Law sent an email to students and faculty.

About 11 a.m Friday, police were called to Markel's home in the 2100 block of Trescott Drive, responding to a "shooting incident," McInnis said. There they found Markel with a gunshot wound. McInnis said Saturday TPD's Violent Crimes Unit is working the case as a homicide after calling it an "unattended incident" Friday. Typically, TPD begins working all deaths without witnesses as if they are a homicide until evidence proves otherwise. TPD did not respond to Democrat inquiries on Sunday.

Tallahassee Police, as a matter of policy, release little information about active and ongoing investigations. State law gives law enforcement wide discretion in how much information it releases on active cases and TPD typically sticks to minimum requirements of naming victims, addresses and the crime being investigated.

FSU law professor dies in shooting

A shortage of details, however, has not diminished speculation of the criminal law professor's death. Neighbors frustrated about a lack of information have taken to social media to speculate and share concerns. Many say they just want to know whether they should be worried

"The rumors are all over the map and the whole neighborhood is frustrated," said Markel's neighbor, Tallahassee attorney Reggie Garcia. "There's just radio silence from law enforcement, which could be strategic or it could be they don't know anything."

Garcia said investigators were still in front of the house Saturday morning. On Sunday, the street was quiet. Markel's home is about a half mile north of Betton Road. A Spanish Oak tree bends over the driveway. No curtains hang in a large window facing the street and a garbage can is pushed up next to the mailbox. On a table next to the front door there is children's sidewalk chalk, a tennis ball, a pumpkin and a pair of sunglasses.

Garcia, an expert on clemency and parole cases, spoke to one of Markel's classes in February. Markel, who has two young sons aged 3 and 5, was a "fun, laid back guy," he said.

"The whole thing's got everyone shocked," Garcia said.

The Betton Hills Neighborhood Facebook page has been busy with activity since Friday. Many expressed frustration with TPD, saying they haven't been getting the answers they need.

"We don't want to compromise the investigation," said Lee Avirett, who has lived in the Betton Hills neighborhood for 35 years. "Do we need to be more on our guard than normal? We just need a little information."

Garcia says in the past three to four weeks there have been multiple burglaries in Betton Hills. His own house was burglarized in 2009. Avirett said his area of Lee Avenue has seen a string of break-ins and home burglaries as well, with groups of two or three people wandering around neighborhoods attempting to break into cars and homes.

TPD and the Leon County Sheriff's Office worked hundreds of "car hopping" burglaries in several northeast Tallahassee neighborhoods earlier this year. Car hopping often involves groups of people wandering through neighborhoods like Killearn Estates, Eastgate and Hillsgate Court pulling on car door handles in order to either steal the car or take what's inside. TPD and LCSO made numerous arrests in these cases.

But Markel's death brings with it a heightened degree of concern.

Dan Markel's house at 2116 Trescott Drive where he was fatally shot Friday morning.(Photo: Sean Rossman/Democrat)

"There's a question of public safety first. Is there still a threat out there?" Garcia asked. "To go from burglaries to an apparent murder in the middle of a Friday, that's a big jump, in supposedly a good neighborhood."

John Calhoun and his family slowed their SUV as they drove by the home Sunday.

"There's a lot of rumors," he said. "The lack of information has been sort of frustrating. Was it a burglary? Was it a home invasion? Was it something more sinister than that?" Calhoun asked.

Tributes to Markel continued Sunday with posts in the Washington Post and various legal blogs from people who considered Markel a mentor and friend. His own blog, prawfsblawg, paid tribute to him as well.

Markel, who earned his bachelor's and law degree from Harvard University, was married to Wendi Adelson, also a Florida State faculty member. The two were in the middle of divorce proceedings at the time of Markel's death, according to the Leon County Clerk of Court. The most recent court date was July 1.

Adelson, 35, is the director of the Medical-Legal Partnership with the FSU College of Law Public Interest Law Center. She previously directed the Human Rights and Immigration Law Project at FSU's Center for the Advancement of Human Rights. She, like Markel, earned a master's degree from the University of Cambridge, before getting her law degree at the University of Miami School of Law in 2006.