(JTA) – A hit man who confessed to killing Jewish law professor Dan Markel implicated Markel’s ex-wife in the crime, adding that she supervised his work a day before the killing. The allegation against Wendi Adelson came in an Oct. 4 police interview released this week by the Tallahassee Democrat, the Forward reported Thursday, Oct. 13. The hit man, Luis Rivera, said that his longtime friend Sigfredo Garcia shot Markel. Rivera, who said he drove the getaway car, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. In the course of the two-hour interview, Rivera told police that Garcia said he had been hired to kill Markel in 2014 because “the lady wants her two kids back.” Markel and Adelson, who divorced in 2013, were locked in a bitter custody dispute at the time of the murder. Adelson and her family have denied any involvement in Markel’s slaying. Adelson’s attorney, John Lauro, told the Tallahassee Democrat on Oct. 12 that Rivera’s testimony is unreliable.

Rivera said that he and Garcia saw Adelson walking near Markel’s house the day before the murder. Rivera said he thought Adelson was scoping the place ahead of the killing. Katherine Magbanua, a suspected accomplice who allegedly knew both the killers and Adelson, said Adelson was there to “make sure he wasn’t lying, that she wasn’t just paying him for nothing.”

Last month, Tallahassee Police Department investigators said that the brother of Markel’s ex-wife, Charlie Adelson, and her mother, Donna Adelson, should be considered prime suspects in his slaying. However, Florida’s state attorney dismissed as “speculation” affidavits from Tallahassee police.

CAP: Dan Markel