ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Opening statements began Thursday in the murder trial for the woman accused of fatally stabbing her husband in their Winter Park home in 2019.
Danielle Redlick, 48, faces charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in the death of 65-year-old Michael Redlick, who worked as director of external affairs and partnership relations at the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program.
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Jurors were selected Wednesday after jury selection began Monday. Opening statements began after 9:30 a.m. Thursday with assistant state attorney Sean Wiggins describing the morning after Michael Redlick was killed. Wiggins told the court Redlick was unhappy in the marriage and had filed for divorce but abandoned that effort and joined a dating site in 2018.
Wiggins says Danielle Redlick "did everything she could to avoid responsibility for her actions," noting her alleged attempt to clean up the crime scene & other actions after Michael's death.
— Cat Silver (@CatSilverNews6) June 9, 2022
Her lawyers followed up in opening statements and said she stabbed her husband in self-defense. The defense claimed Michael Redlick was “violent” with his wife on several occasions and said he punched her in the face at one time, becoming more and more aggressive.
Redlick’s husband was found dead Jan. 12, 2019, in their shared home on Temple Drive. According to a warrant for Redlick’s arrest, she waited 11 hours to call 911 after her husband died. On the phone with 911, investigators said Redlick initially told dispatchers that her husband suffered a heart attack after an argument, later claiming he stabbed himself.
“He was not OK last night. We had an altercation and he stabbed himself and I ran into the bathroom and then I came out and I tried to help him and I saw that he was lying (in) blood,” Redlick said.
Medical examiners determined two days later that Michael died of a stab wound that was not self-inflicted. Additionally, officers reportedly determined that Redlick had tried to clean the scene before calling 911. According to Winter Park police, the home smelled strongly of bleach and blood-stained towels were found throughout the residence.
That February, when Redlick faced a judge for the first time, she reiterated that her husband stabbed himself.
In a statement, Richard Lapchick — one of Michael Redlick’s colleagues at the DeVos program, a fellow director — reacted to the executive’s death.
“The students and alumni talked about his encouraging them, his sense of humor, straightforwardness, the fact that he pushed them to try harder, to not allow their vision of work to be confined to a region of the country. Each talked about the specific thing Mike did for them,” Lapchick said.
In February 2020, Redlick denied a plea deal offered by state prosecutors that would have had Redlick plead guilty to manslaughter charges and accept a more than 10-year prison sentence.
Redlick’s attorneys have said she was acting in self-defense, as she claims her husband tried to strangle her. Prosecutors said evidence from the scene shows otherwise.