Sooo I’m on Day 2 of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month), and I’m listening to the live court hearing of a case I’ve been following for years.

It’s your classic “hitman for hire” case, but there’s a twist this time: Instead of ONE PERSON being involved, there’s an ENTIRE FAMILY.

I know, I know.

INSANE!

The case is Florida versus Adelson, and if you’ve never heard of it and you loveee true crime podcasts, Wondery did an EPIC six-part season on this case. The episodes are free on YouTube.

I’ll spare you all the details, but long story short:

A high-profile professor was murdered in his driveway. He was in the middle of a bitter divorce/child custody battle with his ex-wife, and his in-laws *hated* everything about him and the way he was handling the legal proceedings, so much so that they “allegedly” conspired to kill him.

Over the past couple of years, three people have been convicted and sent to prison for this heinous crime, and this week, the ringleader is claiming *under oath* that although he was NOT involved…He did know all along who the murderers were. Yet, he never ran to the cops with this information because he was being extorted and afraid that the same person who killed his brother-in-law would kill him…

His defense basically boils down to:

“The killers wanted money from me because they heard I was wealthy and they killed my sister’s ex-husband (who I totally hated anyway) to make me see how serious they were… Oh, and yeah, I know the killers are tied to my ex-girlfriend’s baby daddy, and I paid her thousands of dollars every month after the murder, but…Those are just coincidences!

I also know they’re currently in prison for their roles in this and they all named me the ringleader, but it’s EXTORTION, see?”

I would love to see the look on the jurors’ faces while sitting through this testimony.

The trial picks up later this afternoon, and I can’t wait for the prosecution to tear into this utter nonsense.

F.L.Y. + Happy Thursday,

Whit

P.S. My obsession with legal stories (and spice!) is picking up in FILTHY LAWYER & the upcoming firm series. You can check out Book 1 here. If you missed my first foray into steamy legal romance, you can find it via REASONABLE DOUBT.