The year 2024 has not been slow by any means when it comes to criminal cases and moving trials in South Florida.
Many prompt questions more than they provide answers, leaving a public to guess at underlying motivations for some of the most heinous crimes, while families await justice.
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WATCH HEREThese are some of the biggest trials expected to begin in 2025.
Teen Derek Rosa goes to trial for the murder of his mother
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Derek Rosa, the Hialeah teenager who was just 13 when authorities said he called 911 and confessed to stabbing his mother, 39-year-old Irina García, to death with a kitchen knife, is currently in a county jail awaiting trial.
Rosa, now 14, will be tried as an adult more than a year after the alleged crime took place on Oct. 12, 2023.
For the past year, the teen has been in the Metrowest Detention Center, where he spends long hours alone, away from his family and supporters who are fighting for his freedom.
His lawyer Dayliset Rielo said: “This is quite delicate; it is a very strong, extremely sad case involving a child accused of first-degree murder against his own mother. We are working very hard on this case and are urging the prosecution to do the same, moving as quickly as possible to bring it to an end.”
Rosa’s case garnered so much attention not only for his young age, but also for the evidence that authorities say prove his guilt, including recorded confessions and video surveillance captured on a baby monitor. And yet, groups from all over the world have sent messages of support to Rosa's team. Some even believe he's innocent.
His next day in court is scheduled for January 2025.
The murder retrial of rapper YNW Melly
South Florida rapper YNW Melly is going to court–again–for the shooting deaths of his friends in 2018, after his first murder trial ended in a hung jury and thus a mistrial in July 2023.
Melly, whose real name is Jamell Demons, is part of a music collective that included his two childhood friends who rapped under the names YNW Juvy and YNW SakChaser.
Melly is accused of killing them both after a late-night recording session and making it look like a drive-by shooting. He’s been in custody since his arrest in February of 2019.
His case first garnered attention for the traitorous storyline recounted in court, his antics, and also for his rising success: his biggest hit was called "Murder on my Mind” and he boasted a track featuring Kanye West.
But the only reason Melly’s going to court at all in 2025 is because after a yearslong trial followed closely by the public, a jury could not agree on his guilt or innocence.
A Broward County judge declared a mistrial in 2023, and the rapper has spent all of 2024 tied up in judicial proceedings–during which, his attorneys have sought his release and accused the Broward Sheriff’s Office of “cruel” treatment in prison and violating his constitutional rights.
His next court date is in March 2025.
Cuban reggaeton star El Taiger’s alleged murderer goes to trial
The shooting of José Manuel Carbajal Zaldívar, better known as El Taiger, sent shockwaves throughout South Florida’s Cuban community and beyond when the reggaeton star was found fighting for his life inside the back of an SUV abandoned outside Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.
When the public learned about his extremely critical condition, fans and musicians alike, including the popular duo Gente de Zona, showed up at the hospital to pray, grieve and even dance to try to lift El Taiger’s spirits.
The singer died seven days later, on Oct. 10. He was 37.
It was nearly a month before a Hialeah man, 49-year-old Damian Valdez-Galloso, wanted for questioning in his death, was detained in New York City. Now, Valdez-Galloso is facing a charge of second-degree murder–and the state announced its intent in November to upgrade that charge, and accuse him of first-degree murder.
One of the reasons for that, and for the heightened attention on the case, is the shocking surveillance video that police say caught it all: El Taiger being shot in the head in cold blood, dragged across a yard and, allegedly, Valdez-Galloso trying to clean it all up.
The reason for the shooting is also not known. Fans of the reggaeton star may find themselves searching for answers in the criminal trial, though it likely won’t ease the frustration over a talented life cut short.
Valdez-Galloso’s next date in court is scheduled for the end of January 2025.
