An undercover agent who posed as the brother of a Florida professor's alleged killer got much more than he bargained for when he confronted the victim's mother-in-law as part of a sting operation.
The unidentified law enforcement member was investigating the murder of Daniel Markel and looking to confirm a connection between alleged hit man Luis Rivera and Markel's former mother-in-law, Donna Adelson.
Markel was shot dead in July 2014 while in his garage. Rivera and Sigfredo Garcia were later charged with the murder, but some of Markel's in-laws are suspected by authorities of having played a role in arranging the killing in response to his recent contentious divorce from their daughter and sister Wendi.
To investigate the role the Adelsons may have played in Markel's death, the agent approached Donna on the street and said that his brother was in need of money, and asked her for $5,000 to help out the man.
Donna appears shocked and taken aback in video of the interaction which can be seen for the fist time ever on 20/20 Friday night, but not as shocked as police after what happened next.
According to police documents, authorities allege that soon after Donna met the agent claiming to be Rivera's brother, her son Charlie called his then-girlfriend Katherine Magbanua and said to her:
'You better kill him, because he?s going to be a big problem... if you can't do it I'll have someone else do it.'
Video of the encounter between Donna and the undercover agent shows the man approaching her on the street and saying: 'I wanted to let you know that my brother? he helped your family with this problem your family had up north. He?s going through some rough times and I want to make sure that you take care of what he?s going through.'
A stunned Donna responds to this by saying: 'You?re scaring me. I don?t know what you?re talking about.'
That is when the agent hands over the envelope with his request for money and Donna walks away.
In another phone call made shortly after the sting, police allege that Charlie told his mother she should just pay the money as 'a charity.'
Magbanua also reached out to Garcia after the sting according to police.
ABC News Corespondent Matt Gutman spoke to DailyMail.com about the case ahead of Friday night's episode of 20/20, and revealed how Rivera may come to play a big role in the case.
'State sources tell us that they are in negotiations with Rivera for a plea deal in exchange for his cooperation,' said Gutman.
That plea deal could have something to do with the ongoing investigation into some members of the Adelson family, and whether or not they paid Garcia and Rivera to carry out Markel's murder.
The Tallahassee Police Department released probable cause affidavits in the case earlier this month which they believe provided enough evidence to warrant the arrest of Donna and Charlie for the murder of Markel, along with Magbanua.
In addition to being Charlie's girlfriend at the time of Markel's murder, Magbanua is also the mother of Garcia's two children.
Among the information revealed in the probable cause affidavits was that fact that Garcia called Magbanua an astonishing 2,700 times in the three months before Markel's murder.
The documents also showed that there were a number of phones calls placed on July 1, 2014, 17 days before Markel was killed, between Charlie, Magbanua, Garcia and a phone registered to Harvey Adelson, Markel's former father-in-law.
A number of phone calls also occurred between midnight and 1am between Charlie, his mother Donna, Magbanua and Garcia on July 18, the day Markel was murdered.
Authorities also paid close attention to the money being spent and received in the days and weeks after the murder.
Rivera purchased a motorcycle within 10 days of the murder according to the affidavit, and Garcia purchased both a motorcycle and a car soon after Markel's death.
Meanwhile, Magbanua began to receive checks from Chris and his father's dental practice, the Adelson Institute, from September 2014 through January of this year.
In the year prior to Markel's murder, Magbanua also deposited a totaled of $15,000 in cash according to the affidavit.
After the murder she was making deposits totaling $44,000 the affidavit stated.
The affidavit also revealed that one of Wendi Adelson's ex-boyfriends told police she had confessed that her brother was considering paying $15,000 for a hit man.
Gutman said though that he interviewed friends of Wendi, and they stated that there is no possible way she would have been involved or even known about this alleged plot devised by her family.
The Adelson family has also called claims that they had any involvement at all in Markel's death 'categorically false.'
State Attorney Willie Meggs seems to agree with the family as well, stating last week that he would not seek an arrest warrant for Charlie or Magbanua despite the release of the affidavits.
Tallahassee Police said in their probable cause affidavit that they believe Markel's death was the result of his contentious 2013 divorce from Wendi, a lawyer who now lives in Miami Beach and works for a federal judge.
Authorities say Garcia and Rivera traveled from South Florida to Tallahassee in a light green Toyota Prius to kill Markel.
Multiple surveillance videos captured the Prius following Markel as he dropped his sons off at daycare before going to the gym.
Markel then returned home and was sitting in his car and talking on the phone, the keys still in the ignition, when he was shot dead.
A neighbor called police after hearing a gunshot and seeing the Prius back out of the driveway.
The murder came one year after the couple's divorce.
Markel reportedly learned that his marriage was over when he returned home from a business trip to find his wife and children gone, the house empty, and divorce papers laying on his bed.
Wendi and Markel's custody battle turned ugly according to authorities when her parents became desperate to move the couple's children closer to them in South Florida.
Markel eventually asked a judge to stop Donna from having unsupervised contact with his sons, claiming she had been telling them disparaging remarks about their father.
The probable cause affidavit for Charles revealed a judge refused to allow Wendi to move her sons to South Florida in June 2013, shortly after the divorce.
It also stated that the family then discussed paying Markel $1million to allow the children to relocate.
Wendi has since changed her children's last names in the wake of her ex-husband's murder, telling investigators she did this in order to protect them.
More about this case will be revealed at 10pm Friday on ABC's 20/20.
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