It’s been a year since 13-year-old, Derek Rosa confessed to killing his mother Irina Garcia inside their Hialeah apartment, by brutally stabbing her more than 40 times.
The now 14-year-old, is facing murder in the first degree and is being tried as an adult.
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Rosa, whose pleaded not guilty, spends long hours alone in a cell inside the Miami-Dade County jail, awaiting trial. His biological father and grandmother, the victim’s mother, have attended most of his hearings and tried to stay emotionally strong while supporting the alleged killer.
Killing mom with an axe
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More than 300 miles north of Hialeah, there is small town named Inverness. This is where in 2019 another teen by the name of Carlos Hallowell killed his mother, Denise Hallowell.
Records obtained by NBC6 show then 17-year-old Hallowell, “waited until she slept, all the while in his room, he quietly sharpened an axe.”
Hallowell entered his mother’s room and struck her skull with the sharpened tool. Denise, a special education teacher, was brutally murdered inside her bedroom by the boy she adopted in Guatemala when he was only four years old.
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The teen called 911 to report the death. He also ripped the security cameras from inside the home, took the victims phone, and dumped them at the lake behind the home to avoid getting caught. Initially he denied being the killer, but police later found enough evidence to charge him.
Hallowell was tried as an adult and convicted of first degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The now 22-year-old, in an exclusive interview with NBC6 from inside the prison, confessed his crime, but hopes his sentence is vacated or gets a new trial.
Hallowell claims he deserves a new trial because his defense attorneys didn’t do enough. He hopes to one day get a shorter sentence and start a new life outside of a cell.
Why did Carlos Hallowell kill his mother?
In an interview with NBC6, Hallowell said his lifelong trauma forced him to kill the only family member he had.
The killer claims his mom was abusive from an early age.
In 2015, Denise was in fact arrested for allegedly abusing a second child named Angel, she adopted from Honduras.
The educator was fuming as her mugshot spread online. On her Facebook page Denise expressed her anger by posting, “beware of small-town law enforcement and media. They lie.”
According to Hallowell, his mother would hit Angel, make him clean the bathroom naked, and locked him in his room.
The abuse related charges were later dropped. Prosecutors claimed there wasn’t enough evidence to prove she was guilty. Angel was removed from the home. Carlos got supervised visits and stayed close.
“I wasn't exactly the model child,” Hallowell told NBC6.
At an early age, Hallowell started abusing drugs like Xanax and morphine and hung out with people his mother worried about.
Denise installed cameras to monitor her now only son. The same cameras Hallowell got rid of after the killing.
On top of arguing about his friends and his substance abuse, Hallowell says his mother wanted him to have a stable career and live the life she wanted him to live.
“Just thinking about everything that was going on in my life, I've tried three times to kill myself. I guess this time I snapped and decided something else,” said Hallowell.
What describes a parricide offender?
Parricide is described as the act of killing your parent or parents.
Dr. Kathleen Heidi, professor at the University of South Florida, has devoted her research to try and find the truth behind parricides. Dr. Heidi has sat down with more than 50 parricide offenders, including Hallowell.
Dr. Heidi breaks down parricide offenders into four types:
- The most common, the severely abused offender killing out of terror or in desperation.
- The severely mentally ill offender.
- The dangerously anti-social offender, killing for selfish reasons such as the parent becomes an obstacle for what they want, like money of freedom.
- Lastly, the enraged offender which could be fueled by alcohol or drugs.
“After 12, 13, 14 years of the same thing over and over and over again, and you being told you're worthless, you're not worth it,” said Hallowell when explaining why he killed his mother.
Although Dr. Heidi could not comment on Hallowell’s case, during his trial she described him as a “bright, multitalented young man” who could be rehabilitated but “it’s going to depend on Carlos.”
The presiding judge and prosecutors, however, did not see a future for Hallowell outside of a cell.
A state medical doctor diagnosed the killer with an antisocial personality disorder and stated he carried 16 out of 20 indicators for a psychopath.
One doctor described Hallowell as “disarming but extremely dangerous.”
Hallowell’s case is now considered reopened in the Florida court system.
Photo by Adriana Mocciola
Credits:
Adriana Mocciola (Executive Producer)
Zahira Collazo (Director of Photography)
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Adriana Mocciola (Editing & Script)
Christian Colón (Reporter & Script) Chad Mitchell (Graphic Designer)
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