Chilling crime scene photos have been released of the moments a Florida honor roll student was seen standing over his sleeping mother’s bed before she was stabbed to death.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office released the images from babycam footage in the case of Derek Rosa, a 13-year-old boy from Hialeah, who is facing a murder charge in the Oct. 12 killing of his mother.
“Several photos released Monday show the knife used to kill 39-year-old Irina Garcia, covered in blood. Two other photos captured from a nearby baby monitor show Garcia holding her newborn daughter, and then her son, Derek Rosa, later standing over her the night of the killing,” NBC Miami affiliate WTVJ reported. “Another photo shows Rosa posing with what appears to be blood on his hand. It’s reportedly the same photo Rosa allegedly sent to a friend after the killing.”
The 8th-grade honors student at iMater Academy in Hialeah is being charged as an adult and is being “kept alone in a cell with a frosted window with no direct view outside” at the Metro West Detention Center.
Police responded to an emergency call from the teen saying he had murdered his mother, finding the woman covered in blood and dead a few feet from her unharmed two-week-old baby girl.
“Derek told police that after he killed his mother, he found two guns owned by his stepfather and wanted to commit suicide. But he couldn’t follow through, police said. Instead, Derek took pictures of his dead mother and shared them with a friend on social media. After taking the pictures, police said Derek asked the dispatcher if that was ‘bad,'” The Miami Herald reported last week.
Last week, Rosa made his first in-person court appearance as his family advocated for having him moved to another detention facility and the boy’s legal team successfully argued for permission from the judge to inspect the crime scene.
“Derek was initially charged with second-degree murder and transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center. But five weeks ago, a Miami-Dade grand jury found enough probable cause to indict the teen as an adult and upped the charge to first-degree murder. Hersch ordered the teen held without bond and moved to the Metro West adult jail,” according to the Miami Herald.
“I guess what we’re asking for is another opportunity — a second chance — to help him grow and become mature as a grown man to put this behind him,” his father, Jose Rosa had pleaded. The teen’s stepfather was not home at the apartment the night his wife was murdered.
“Metro West is housing juveniles as of the 26 of October which happens to be the day Derek was transferred,” defense attorney Dayliset Rielo said last week, according to WTVJ. “We do not believe they are equipped right now for him and we think they are doing him a disservice.”
The outlet noted that Rosa “is the youngest of 34 juveniles being held at the new juvenile section at Metro West, and that the rest are 16 and 17 years old.”
Miami-Dade Judge Richard Hersch has delayed a decision on moving Rosa out of adult jail to the juvenile detention center until his trial begins.
“Prosecutors are against moving him to juvenile detention because they say Rosa needs to be treated as an adult as that is what the law says for those charged as such,” the outlet reported.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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