Derek Medina found guilty in Facebook murder trial

The jury’s verdict came in the third week of the trial of Derek Medina in the August 2013 killing of 27-year-old Jennifer Alfonso. In a text message to a friend that morning, Alfonso said she “felt like ripping his face off” and was “about to explode” because of Medina’s actions and added she just wanted more attention. “Far, far too often this kind of domestic violence leads to injury and death”.

“They could have been swayed if they would have heard a history of abuse”, defense attorney Saam Zangeneh said.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny set Medina’s sentencing for January 11. “I don’t know if they would have been swayed if we would have had our crime scene re-constructionist being able to explain shadow placement, which would have buttressed our position that she had a knife”.

“He planned to execute Jen, and he executed his plan”, prosecutor Leah Klein said in her closing argument, the Miami New Times reported.

It ended in the kitchen, where Medina claims he was threatened with a knife, leading him to go back upstairs for his gun followed by the fatal shooting. The girl was in an upstairs bedroom and did not witness the slaying.

Rundle indicated that prosecutors will seek life imprisonment when Medina is sentenced.

Medina faces life in prison if convicted of murder in the August 2013 killing.

He was also found guilty of shooting or throwing a deadly missile and of child neglect without bodily harm, having left his wife’s minor daughter alone in the home after the shooting. “‘I’m going to prison, ‘” said prosecutor J. Scott Dunn. He also admitted to killing her.

The defense has tried to show that Medina was verbally and physically abused by his wife on a regular basis. “Take care. Facebook people you’ll see me in the news”.

On the other hand, persecutors said that the very fact that Medina, who worked as a small-time actor, shot Alfonso eight times and then uploaded the photo on Facebook tells its own story.