(NEW YORK) — The South is bracing for a potentially major winter storm this weekend, impacting Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.
The storm is still several days away, so exact timing and locations are not yet clear. But as of now, more than 30 million people are under a winter storm watch, from Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Huntsville, Alabama, to Nashville, Tennessee.
Snow is expected to develop over the Plains on Friday and a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain is forecast to the south. The storm will become more widespread Saturday morning.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Tuesday he was activating state emergency response resources ahead of the storm, saying the freezing rain, sleet and snow “could create hazardous travel conditions into the weekend and cause impacts to infrastructure.”
The system will reach the East Coast by Sunday and impacts could linger there into Monday. But the specific timing and what to expect is still unclear.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Ian Maxwell, the brother of convicted Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, is speaking out on his sister’s ongoing effort to overturn her conviction, her recent Congressional deposition, her transfer to a federal prison camp in Texas, and more in a broad interview Tuesday with ABC News.
Ian Maxwell’s comments come a week after his sister invoked the Fifth Amendment during a closed-door virtual deposition before the House Oversight Committee last Monday, where she was asked questions about her relationship with Epstein and her involvement in the late sex offender’s criminal activity.
“The legal advice was absolutely clear. And you need to think about this quite carefully,” Ian Maxwell said of his sister’s decision to not answer the questions, reiterating that she did speak with United States Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July.
“He asked her over two days of questioning several hundred questions. She didn’t fail to answer a single one of those,” he said.
During her interview with Blanche, a former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, Maxwell continued to deny any involvement in Epstein’s sexual exploitation and said she had not witnessed any wrongdoing by any other man — including Trump or former President Bill Clinton. Maxwell was granted limited immunity for the interview as long as she answered questions truthfully.
Ian Maxwell also touched on the possibility of President Trump pardoning his sister, though he noted she had not asked Trump for a pardon. He said the idea that she could exonerate Trump and Clinton of any wrongdoing with her testimony was attributable to a former lawyer of Maxwell’s.
“Ghislaine has not asked President Trump for a pardon. The fact of the matter is that the Epstein scandal is being used by both sides of the aisle to beat the present president and the former president,” he said.
Ian Maxwell also discussed a petition pending in federal court in New York that seeks to overturn her conviction or reduce her sentence.
The petition alleges nine separate grounds — including juror misconduct and government suppression of evidence — for Ghislaine Maxwell’s contention that constitutional violations undermined the integrity of her 2021 trial.
“I am hopeful that the petition will reach the judge presiding over the petition based on the evidence, the evidentiary record,” he said.
In the interview, the British businessman addressed Ghislaine Maxwell’s transfer from a federal prison in Florida to a federal prison camp in Texas over the summer.
“Ghislaine is possibly the most notorious prisoner in the U.S. federal system today,” he said. “We know that prison is a very violent place. Jeffrey Epstein died. Ghislaine did have many threats in Tallahassee where she was. It was a notoriously violent and dangerous place for her own safety. She had to be moved.”
At the time of the move, the reason for the transfer was not made clear. FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where Maxwell had been held, is a “low security” prison for men and women, while FPC Bryan is a “minimum security” camp just for women.
Ian Maxwell disputed the idea that his sister was transferred as any sort of reward for protecting Trump.
“President Trump has not done anything wrong. You tell me, have you found anything wrong in the papers yet? I haven’t seen anything there,” he said regarding the recent release of Epstein files by the Justice Department.
Ian Maxwell also discussed the authenticity of a photograph of his sister with the former Prince Andrew and his late accuser Virginia Giuffre.
“I would maintain that Ghislaine continues to have tremendous doubt about the picture that was published and believes that it is not the original and may have been doctored in some way. We don’t know,” said Ian Maxwell, who backs his sister’s stance that she was not responsible for introducing the former prince to Epstein.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five of six counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls. In his interview, Ian Maxwell maintained that his sister “did not receive a fair trial” and said that “the verdict is deeply unsafe.”
Ian Maxwell was asked to elaborate on claims made in Ghislaine Maxwell’s pending petition that as many as 25 other men settled claims privately with Epstein accusers.
“The only person who is in jail, the only person whose been tried and found guilty is a woman, my sister,” Ian Maxwell said. “All of these men have disappeared into the ether.”
(NEW YORK) — Florida State University law professor Dan Markel’s last day alive began like many others.
He dropped off his two young sons at preschool and went to the gym, authorities said. But things took a dark turn.
After pulling into his driveway on the morning of July 18, 2014, Markel was shot in the head multiple times and rushed to a hospital where he died the next day, authorities said.
Markel had been having custody issues with his ex-wife Wendi Adelson.
Over the next 11 years, two members of Adelson’s family, including most recently her mother Donna Adelson, would be revealed as the center of a stunning murder-for-hire plot against him that would span several criminal trials.
A new “20/20” episode, “Meddler or Murderer?,” airing Friday, Jan. 2, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
Wendi Adelson came from a prominent dentistry family in South Florida. Wendi’s father, Harvey Adelson, and brother Charlie Adelson, were lead dentists at the practice, called the Adelson Institute, according to authorities.
Wendi married Markel in 2006 after previously connecting on a Jewish dating service. However, a controlling figure emerged in their relationship — her mother, Donna.
Sarah Katherine Dugan, who prosecuted Donna Adelson, said in court that the family matriarch was very involved in all aspects of Wendi’s life and relationship with Markel.
“She was extremely controlling. She had very strong opinions about all the decisions in Wendi Adelson’s life, whether it be about her career, her relationships, or even purchasing a home,” she said.
Wendi Adelson and Dan Markel eventually moved to Tallahassee, where they both got jobs at Florida State University’s law school. However, their marriage deteriorated.
“Our marriage dissolved after the children arrived, as the loneliness of being married to someone that didn’t view me as an equal crept in,” Wendi Adelson said in a 2015 podcast.
The couple went through a bitter divorce, and at the center of both of their lives post-separation was the issue of where their two children would live.
Donna Adelson began a fierce campaign against Markel to relocate the children and Wendi down to South Florida with her, but Markel remained insistent on keeping the kids in Tallahassee, 500 miles away, according to authorities.
Markel became increasingly distrustful of Donna Adelson due to her desire to move the children away from him, even filing a motion to prevent her from having unsupervised visits with the children in 2014. However, it would be the last motion he would ever file before he was shot to death.
Some two years after the killing, investigators arrested two individuals named Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera in 2016, charging them with first-degree murder. The duo was alleged to be hired hitmen who were paid to take out Markel, per prosecutors.
In exchange for a lesser sentence of second-degree murder and 19 years in prison, Rivera gave investigators the name of the woman he claimed hired them to carry out the hit on Markel — Katie Magbanua, the mother of Garcia’s child and the ex-girlfriend of Adelson’s brother, Charlie.
Police then arrested Magbanua in 2016 and later Charlie Adelson in 2022, charging them with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder for Markel’s death.
Prosecutors alleged that Donna and Charlie orchestrated the hit on Dan Markel due to his custody issues with Wendi, and they used Magbanua, Garcia and Rivera to execute their plot.
Magbanua and Charlie Adelson both pleaded not guilty but were ultimately convicted of all charges in 2022 and 2023, respectively, and sentenced to life in prison with an additional 60 years for their conspiracy and solicitation convictions.
Garcia was also convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty.
After Charlie’s conviction, investigators learned that Donna Adelson was planning to leave the country with a one-way ticket to Vietnam — a country that has no extradition agreement with the U.S.
Police arrested her at the Miami International Airport in 2023, also charging her with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and solicitation to commit murder in Dan Markel’s killing.
Donna Adelson pleaded not guilty, with her defense claiming that she was not involved in the murder plot.
Adelson, 75, was convicted of all counts against her in 2025 and sentenced to life in prison with an extra 30 years for the solicitation and conspiracy charges to be served consecutively.
“Never in a million years would I have wanted Danny to be harmed or killed, nor could I ever do something that would leave these two small boys to grow up without him,” she said at her sentencing.
In an exclusive new interview with “20/20,” Evan Higginbotham, a juror at Donna Adelson’s trial, spoke out.
“The prosecution had a long list of evidence,” he said. “I think it was how they presented that evidence in the trial that laid out everything to finally land me a guilty verdict at the end of it.”
Dan Markel’s mother, Ruth Markel, told “20/20” that she was most proud of her son for being a good dad.
“Danny was a great father,” she said. “With all his accomplishments, to me I’m the proudest of him as a father.”
Donna and Charlie Adelson have filed appeals for their convictions. Magbanua and Garcia’s appeals were both denied in 2025.
Hiram Carrero, 18, accused of lighting a homeless man on fire aboard a northbound number 3 train, is taken from the New York Police Department 9th Precinct in New York, on Dec. 4, 2025. Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News via TNS via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A teenager is facing a federal arson charge for allegedly setting a sleeping homeless man on fire on a New York City subway train, officials said.
Hiram Carrero, 18, was arrested on Thursday night and appeared in Manhattan federal court on Friday, authorities said.
The 56-year-old victim was asleep on a 3 train when, around 3 a.m. Monday, the suspect walked into the car at 34th Street Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan, according to police. Surveillance images released in the federal complaint show the victim completely alone in the subway car.
Carrero allegedly approached the victim and set his legs on fire, investigators said. Carrero then allegedly fled the train right when the doors were closing, according to the complaint.
The victim was still covered in flames when he exited the subway car at Times Square, the next stop, the complaint said. Surveillance footage showed him sitting on the platform with flames rising from his upper legs.
Law enforcement responded and extinguished the blaze and then rushed the victim to a hospital in critical condition, the complaint said.
On Friday, Carrero made his initial appearance in court where a federal magistrate ordered him released. Prosectors are appealing to a district court judge.
Carrero was initially arrested on state charges including attempted murder.
