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U.S. NEWSThursday 26 November 2015
Man convicted of killing wife; posted Facebook photo of body
Derek Medina, is led out of the courtroom after he was found guilty of second-degree murder, CURT ANDERSON about six hours of jury de-
Wednesday Nov. 25, 2015 in Miami. Medina, who killed his wife and posted a photo of the AP Legal Affairs Writer liberation over two days.
bloody corpse on Facebook, was convicted after failing to convince a jury that he shot her eight MIAMI (AP) — A Florida man She declined comment to
times in self-defense. who killed his wife and post- reporters. Medina’s father,
ed a photo of the bloody also named Derek Medina,
(Walter Michot/The Miami Herald via AP, Pool) corpse on Facebook was would not comment.
convicted Wednesday of Medina showed absolute-
second-degree murder af- ly no emotion as he was
ter failing to convince a jury handcuffed and led back
that he shot her eight times to jail, where he has been
in self-defense. held since the killing. His at-
The jury verdict came in torney, Saam Zangeneh,
the third week of Derek said there will be an ap-
Medina’s trial in the August peal.
2013 killing of 27-year-old The second-degree murder
Jennifer Alfonso at their Mi- conviction means that Me-
ami home. Medina told po- dina, 33, faces a sentence
lice in a videotaped state- of 25 years to life in prison.
ment he shot his wife dur- “No family should ever
ing an altercation in which have to see their daughter
she threatened him with a killed and then exhibited
knife. worldwide on the Internet
Medina, who did not testify like some macabre trophy
in his own defense, admit- to a husband’s anger as
ted in the police statement was Jennifer Alfonso,” Run-
taking a cellphone photo dle said.
of his dead wife’s body Trial testimony showed the
and uploading it on Face- couple began fighting in
book, along with a posting their upstairs bedroom be-
that said he expected to cause Medina had failed
go to prison but was forced to wake up his wife early
to kill her following years of that morning to watch a
physical abuse. movie, as he had prom-
Prosecutors put on evi- ised. Investigators testified
dence indicating that Me- that Alfonso threw mas-
dina had vowed to kill Al- cara containers and towels
fonso if she tried to leave at Medina, who pointed a
him, which she told friends gun at her in the bedroom
she planned to do. They but did not fire.
also pointed out that at In a text message to a
6 feet (1.83 meters) and friend that morning, Alfonso
about 200 pounds (91 ki- said she “felt like ripping his
lograms), Medina could face off” and was “about
have easily overpowered to explode” because of
his 5-foot-6 wife (1.68 me- Medina’s actions and add-
ters) without shooting her. ed she just wanted more
Alfonso’s mother, Carolyn attention.
Knox, burst into tears when “I just want to spend time
the verdict was read after with him but I’m not going
to beg,” she wrote shortly
before her death.
Later, the altercation con-
tinued in the downstairs
kitchen — some of it cap-
tured on one of the home’s
interior surveillance cam-
eras. Medina told police Al-
fonso pulled a large kitch-
en knife on him and that
he was able to disarm her,
then went back upstairs for
the gun and shot his wife
when she kept fighting with
her fists. A medical exam-
iner, however, testified that
the eight shots were all fired
downward toward Alfonso
and that the position of her
body on the kitchen floor
indicated she had been
cowering on her knees
when killed.q
