Daniel Markel killing: Woman charged with 1st-degree murder in death of Canadian professor

A woman arrested in the death of a Canadian legal scholar in Florida has been charged with first-degree murder for her alleged role in what investigators have suggested was a murder-for-hire rooted in a bitter divorce.

A U.S. grand jury indicted Katherine Magbanua this week in the 2014 killing of Dan Markel, a law professor at Florida State University who was born in Toronto.

Magbanua – the third person arrested in the case – was initially taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder in October.

READ MORE: Daniel Markel killing: Florida police make 3rd arrest in death of Canadian professor

That month, one of the two others arrested in the case, Luis Rivera, suddenly pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He told investigators he and his co-accused, Sigfredo Garcia, were paid to kill Markel because the academic’s ex-wife allegedly wanted full custody of their two children.

Markel’s ex wife, Wendi Adelson, and her family have denied any involvement in the professor’s death and she has not been charged. Her brother has come under police suspicion but is also not charged.

Police have said Magbanua was in a relationship with Adelson’s brother and was the only link between Markel’s ex-wife’s family and the two men arrested in the professor’s death.