Authorities say 31-year-old Derek Medina confessed to fatally shooting wife 26-yeard-old Jennifer Alfonso and posted a photo of her body on Facebook. Father Jose Alfonso says he hopes Medina pays for taking away his daughter. NBC 6’s Diana Gonzalez has the story.
A South Miami man was denied bail after authorities say he confessed to fatally shooting his wife and posting a photo of her body on Facebook.
Wearing a suicide protection vest, Derek Medina, 31, appeared before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Elena Verde Friday.
When asked if Medina would be seeking private counsel, he initially said, "I am in the process of talking to someone," but later agreed to be represented by a public defender.
Medina, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Jennifer Alfonso, 26.
Alfonso's father told NBC 6 that he hopes Medina pays for his actions.
"Whatever he gets is not going to bring my daughter back, so I hope that he gets everything that's coming to him," Jose Alfonso said.
Police said they discovered Alfonso inside a townhouse in the 5500 block of Southwest 67th Avenue after Medina showed up at the station and said he killed his wife after a domestic argument Thursday.
When officials arrived on the scene, they found Alfonso dead on the kitchen floor from multiple gunshot wounds, a Miami-Dade arrest report said.
A 10-year-old child was also found unharmed at the scene. Miami-Dade Police said the child was Alfonso's daughter. Police confirmed the child was home during the murder but haven't said if she witnessed it.
Medina told officials he had gotten into a fight with Alfonso at about 10 a.m. Thursday, the arrest report said. He was in his bedroom when he grabbed a gun from his closet and pointed it at Alfonso, so she left the bedroom but came back later to say she was leaving him, the report said.
She went down into the kitchen and Medina followed her without the gun, but Alfonso began to punch him, so he went back to get his firearm, according to the report.
Once he was downstairs with the gun, Alfonso grabbed a knife, but Medina was able to take it from her, officials said.
Alfonso began punching him again and that's when Medina shot at her, the report said.
After the shooting, Medina posted a photo of his wife on his Facebook page. The graphic photo, captioned "RIP Jennifer Alfonso," shows a woman slumped on the floor, on her back with her legs bent backward and blood on her left arm and cheek.
He also posted the following comment shortly after posting the photo:
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Im going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people you will see me in the news" my wife was punching me and I am not going to stand anymore with the abuse so I did what I did I hope u understand me
At some point later, Medina changed his clothes and left the scene without calling 911, police said. He then went to family members, confessing what he had done, before turning himself in to police, according to the report.
The Facebook photo was up for more than five hours before Facebook removed the page late Thursday afternoon.
A Facebook spokeswoman said in an email to The Associated Press that she couldn't comment on a law enforcement investigation but could provide a general comment from the company.
"The content was reported to us," the spokeswoman wrote. "We took action on the profile — removing the content and disabling the profile, and we reached out to law enforcement. We take action on all content that violates our terms, which are clearly laid out on our site."
South Miami Police said the case was being handed over to Miami-Dade Police.
Family and friends of Alfonso showed up at the scene and said the couple met at Denny's, where she worked, and that he had actually written several books dedicated to her. One them titled: "How I saved someone's life and marriage and family problems thru communication."
Alfonso's grieving grandmother said she was shocked following the news.
"She was calm, she worked, I never knew anything about their relationship and if there were problems," Marisia Alfonso said.
Neighbor Anne Swary, however, said there were some signs of trouble.
"She never spoke to us," Swary said. "She kind of always stayed behind him and I never saw any kinds of confrontations or violence between them, but it gave me the impression there was something going on in their home, that maybe there wasn't a good relationship there."
Neighbor Yoshi Dade said Medina was a self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman.
"He walks around with a concealed gun, so he tries to be the neighborhood watchguy. He's always there late night and he's weird to me he's always kind of looking around and trying to be a hero," Dade said.
Public records show that Medina and Alfonso first married in January 2010, divorced in February 2012 and then remarried three months later. Medina bought the condominium unit where the couple lived in March 2012 for $107,000.
On his Facebook page, Medina claimed to be a supervisor at a property management company and to have appeared in the Miami-based crime drama "Burn Notice," though his name doesn't appear in online credits for the show.
Medina's next court date was set for 21 days from his appearance in bond court.
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