He is accused of murdering his wife in August 2013 and then posting a photo of her body on Facebook. He claimed Alonso “was an avid user of synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy, that she battered her husband and that she was deeply involved in the occult and Satan worship”.
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A jury on Wednesday found a Florida man guilty of second-degree murder after he killed his wife and posted a photo of her blood-spattered body on Facebook.
Jurors got the case of 33-year-old Derek Medina on Tuesday but did not reach a verdict.
However the prosecution said he killed his 27-year-old wife in their south Miami home after she threatened to leave him and that she never had weapon. After he killed her, authorities say, he posted a picture of her body on his Facebook page with a note. Prosecutors argued Medina shot Alfonso to death when she threatened to leave.
But persecutors expect the Facebook killer to stay in prison for life.
Medina’s sentencing is scheduled for January 11.
But Medina’s attorney described a different scene altogether: Alfonso lunging at Medina with a kitchen knife seconds before he fatally shot his wife in self-defense, meeting force with justifiable force. If he had been convicted of first-degree murder as initially charged – which requires proof of planning and premeditation – the life sentence would have been automatic.
“She wanted to push Derek – and she pushed him too far”, defence attorney Saam Zangeneh said in closing statements.
“The fact that he shot her so many times in response to her allegedly punching him is a clear indication that he was not acting in self-defense”, Miami-Dade prosecutor Matthew Baldwin said.
Medina and Alfonso had a tumultuous relationship, marrying and divorcing and then marrying again, court records show. The girl was in an upstairs bedroom and did not witness the slaying. He also admitted to killing her.
The next and final post, called “Rip Jennifer Alfonso”, was a gruesome photograph showing a woman in a black leotard slumped on the floor.
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Medina wrote on Facebook shortly earlier than turning himself in: “I’m going to jail or dying sentence for killing my spouse”.
