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U.S. NEWSWednesday 18 November
Video shows wife’s last moments in Facebook killer case
CURT ANDERSON
AP Legal Affairs Writer
MIAMI (AP) — A jury on
Tuesday viewed a surveil-
lance video depicting the
final moments of a young
wife’s life before she was
fatally shot by her hus-
band, who later posted a
photo of her dead body
on Facebook and insists he
fired in self-defense.
The video, from one of sev-
eral cameras at the cou-
ple’s South Miami home,
shows no evidence that
27-year-old Jennifer Alfon-
so was physically attack-
ing Derek Medina as he
claims before he gunned
her down in their kitchen in
August 2013. But the video
angle also does not cap-
ture everything that hap-
pened in the kitchen, nor
the shooting itself.
Two police officers who
dealt with Medina the day
of the slaying testified that
he never asked for medi-
cal attention and showed
no evidence of physical
injury. Medina told police
Sheriff says suspect befriended victims later found slain
JAMIE STENGLE
DAVID WARREN
Associated Press
MIDLOTHIAN, Texas (AP) —
The man charged in the
killings of six people at a
Texas campsite had earlier
befriended the victims and
helped dislodge one of
their vehicles from mud, a
sheriff said Tuesday.
William Hudson, 33, spent
time with the group Sat-
urday and then returned
hours later and killed them
all, though authorities have
not said how, Anderson
County Sheriff Greg Tay-
lor said. Taylor declined to
elaborate on the attack or
a motive, but said Tuesday
that there were “several
different crime scenes.”
Derek Medina, center, talks to his attorneys, Mauricio Padilla, left and Saam Zangeneh, during
day five of his trial for the murder of his wife, and then posting her body on Facebook, Tuesday,
Nov.17, 2015 in Miami.
in a videotaped statement
played earlier in his trial that
Alfonso regularly abused
him and had been hitting
and pushing him forcefully
before the shooting.
“Did you observe any ob-
vious signs of injury to Mr.
Medina?” prosecutor J.
This photo provided by the
Anderson County Sheriff’s
Office shows William Hudson.
(AP Photo) ing to Steven Woodruff,
The victims were part of a
blended family that had
come from as far away
as California for a week-
(Walter Michot/Miami Herald via AP, Pool)
Scott Dunn asked South
Miami police Det. Matt
Taylor, who drove Medina
to the Miami-Dade Police
Department for question-
ing shortly after the killing. Alfonso is shown going in
“No,” Taylor replied.
Earlier, police photos in-
troduced as evidence
end together to camp on
wooded land that 46-year-
old Thomas Kamp had pur-
chased in August, accord-
who was Kamp’s uncle.
The land was adjacent to
property owned by Hud-
son and his family about
100 miles (160 kilometers)
southeast of Dallas, Taylor
said.
Kamp had lived for sev-
eral years in Midlothian,
south of Dallas, with Han-
nah Johnson, 40, and her
6-year-old son Kade. They
were joined last weekend
by Johnson’s parents, Carl
and Cynthia Johnson, and
Kamp’s two sons from a
previous marriage, Nathan
and Austin Kamp, who
other briefly opening and
closing the townhouse’s
front door. Medina comes
into the kitchen and both
are off camera, then he
leaves and comes back —
showed no marks indicat- which is when the shooting
ing any fight on Medina’s happened.
body or head and no cuts Puffs of gunpowder can
or scratches to his hands. be seen swirling in the
In the surveillance video, air around the camera.
Medina then appears
and out of the couple’s to use his cellphone to
kitchen, at one point wash- take the Facebook photo
ing a few dishes and at an- and leaves the house after
changing clothes. He later
turned himself in to police.
Medina said in his police
statement that Alfonso
came at him with a knife
and that he was able to
disarm her, then went up-
stairs to get his .380-caliber
handgun. Alfonso was shot
eight times.
“Is Jennifer seen attacking
Derek as he went upstairs
to retrieve the firearm he
would eventually use to
shoot her dead?” Dunn
asked lead Miami-Dade
police Det. Jonathan
Grossman.q
were California residents. never seen anything like
The family also was cel- this,” Taylor said.
ebrating Nathan Kamp’s One of Hannah Johnson’s
24th birthday. friends, Michael Gilbert,
Cynthia Johnson escaped said she grew up and at-
the attack and hid in tended school in Maine
woods before calling po- and later lived in suburban
lice for help. Boston before moving to
“Nothing can describe the Texas to be closer to her
pain and sorrow of the re- parents, who had retired
maining family members,” there.
Woodruff told reporters “She loved it down there
at a news conference on and was really happy,” he
Tuesday afternoon. said in a phone interview,
Two of the victims were adding that she found a
found by sheriff’s deputies job she liked with an in-
in a travel camper. The surance company in Fort
other bodies, including Worth.
Kade’s, were later pulled Gilbert said she enjoyed
from a pond about a half- camping and about a
mile away. year ago bought an Air-
“I’ve been in law enforce- stream travel camper that
ment for 31 years and I’ve she had long coveted.q