Opening statements are slated to begin Wednesday in Danielle Redlick’s Florida murder trial for the 2019 stabbing death of her stepfather-turned-husband, ex-NBA executive Michael Redlick.
Danielle, 48, allegedly used a kitchen knife to slice up her husband in their upscale home in Winter Park then waited 11 hours to call 911 — while she perused a dating app, according to investigators.
Neighbors said the pair, who were married for 17 years and share two children, had a “rocky relationship and fought often,” an affidavit for an arrest warrant states. Michael had even joked to one of them that he would be fine “as long as I hide the steak knives.”
Michael was 65 and a faculty member at University of Central Florida at the time of his murder. He previously worked as vice president of corporate sales for the Memphis Grizzlies.
He became smitten with Danielle, 20 years his junior, after marrying her mom, Kathleen Aquino, to help her get better health insurance, according to WFTV. Aquino had breast cancer.
But the tumultuous union ended abruptly Jan. 11, 2019, with Michael’s death. Danielle is on trial in Orange County, Florida, charged with second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in his stabbing death.
One day after the fatal altercation, Danielle called 911 to report “a tragedy at her home” and said her husband “might have had a heart attack,” wrote Detective Pamela Woehr in the arrest affidavit.
Danielle claimed he had tried to choke and suffocate her after they had a fight over flirtatious text messages she had exchanged with another man, according to court papers.
During the argument, Michael allegedly snatched a McDonald’s quarter-pounder she was eating, took a bite and spat it in her face, she told investigators. She claimed she grabbed a kitchen knife to defend herself, and he grabbed it away from her and stabbed himself. Danielle barricaded herself in the bathroom, as she listened to her husband moan, she told the operator.
When she went to check on him, he was “out of it,” and she was “slipping on his blood” — but didn’t call the police because she was on probation and feared she’d go back to jail, she told the operator.
One year earlier, she was arrested for allegedly drunkenly attacking a pair of sheriff’s deputies and trying to bite one of their hands.
Danielle allegedly tried to clean up the gruesome crime scene. When police arrived, there was a strong smell of bleach, piles of blood-soaked towels and a bucket of pink liquid. She told the operator that she was “just exhausted and fell asleep.”
The couple’s children were not home. About two hours before calling the police, Danielle was on the dating app MeetMindful — “for people who want to live their happiest healthiest lives,” according to the company’s website. She had been reviewing her messages.
Before calling 911, she slit her wrists – but so superficially that she was no longer bleeding when officers arrived on the scene, according to the affidavit.
The medical examiner said there were no signs that Michael suffered a heart attack. The couple had recently reconciled after living apart.
Michael allegedly emailed a friend before his slaying, “My family is scheduled to move here in December during winter break unless Danielle kills or divorces my a—. Neither is beyond possibility.”
Jury selection in the case began Monday. Danielle’s lawyer, Catherine Conlon, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
