TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A 34-year-old South Florida man has been arrested in connection with the killing of a well-known Florida State University professor.
A statement released by the Tallahassee Police Department early Thursday said Hallandale Beach Police arrested Sigfredo Garcia in Broward County. Police have not yet released additional details about Garcia's alleged involvement in the killing, but arrest records show Garcia was charged with murder and possession of cocaine.
Daniel Markel was shot in the head inside his garage in the middle of the day in July 2014. Markel, who was well-known in legal circles nationally and internationally, died later from the wound.
His shooting stunned colleagues as well as residents inside the upscale neighborhood where he lived in Tallahassee. Markel, 41, was born in Toronto. He was the father of two boys and a 2001 graduate of Harvard Law School. He practiced white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation before joining the Florida State law school as a faculty member in 2005. He was tenured in 2010.
Markel finalized a contentious divorce from his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, in 2013. The two had split custody of sons Benjamin and Lincoln, but they had follow-up litigation over money settlements. Adelson is program director for the Human Rights and Immigration Law Project at the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at FSU.
Police initially had few leads in the case and eventually circulated pictures of the car believed to have been used by those involved.
State arrest records show Garcia has multiple arrests dating back to 1997 including arrests for car theft, cocaine possession, burglary, threatening a witness and a strongarm robbery charge in 2012. Those records show that other charges were filed against him - including possession of an explosive device - but that the charges were dropped.
His occupation is listed on his arrest records as a heavy machine operator.