by Patrick H. Moore
More information has been disclosed concerning the Derek Medina Facebook murder of his wife Jennifer Alfonso. According to CBS News and other media outlets, soon after shooting Jennifer and posting the news and the now famous photograph of her dead twisted body on Facebook, Medina went first to his father’s house where he confessed and then turned himself in to the Miami-Dade police where he admitted that he had a domestic dispute with his wife and then shot her.
According to the arrest affidavit, here is what happened:
Medina stated to the police that he shot Jennifer Alfonso, 26, at their South Miami home after she said she was “leaving him.” When they went to his house to investigate, the police found Alfonso’s body, as well as her 10-year-old daughter, who was unharmed.
According to the affidavit, Medina said the couple became involved in a heated argument in an upstairs bedroom when he armed himself with a gun and pointed it at her. He said Alfonso left the bedroom, returning later to say she was leaving him. He says he went downstairs and confronted her in the kitchen, when she began punching him. He claims he went back upstairs to get his gun and confronted her again, at which time she grabbed a knife. Medina said he was able to disarm her and put the knife in a drawer, but that when she began punching him again, he shot her several times.
As is now well-known, Medina posted his Facebook confession at 11:11 a.m. Thursday, and his next and final post entitled “Rip Jennifer Alfonso”, which showed his dead wife in an awkward position on the floor with her legs bent back with blood on her left arm and cheek, a few seconds later. The photo was up on Facebook for more than five hours before Facebook removed the page late Thursday afternoon.
In a statement given to CBS Miami, Facebook said: “The content was reported to us. 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. As this is an ongoing law enforcement investigation, I would refer you to the authorities in Florida for any additional details.”
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There is as yet uncorroborated information gleaned by the Miami Herald suggesting that someone named Derek Medina advertised e-books he had apparently written about saving marriage through communication to “humans who are gifted and can see the supernatural spirit ghost world we live in.”
“The author was with his wife in New York and his wife was attacked by a ghost,” he writes, describing the e-book. “She was seeing a ghost and was being taunted and messed with. She informed her husband and he told her to go to sleep and he would watch over her. Minutes later he was attacked by a demon ghost and he was sick and throwing up.”
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Yesterday, I stated in a post on this topic that based on Derek Medina’s farewell to his “Facebook buddies,” he did not seem to be “entirely without redeeming features.” Based on today’s new evidence, it’s clear that despite his penchant for melodrama, once he had come to his senses, Medina did the right thing and turned himself in to the authorities. The arrest affidavit — although perhaps not entirely accurate — sounds reasonably convincing. Neighbors have reported hearing screams, that apparently lasted for some time, coming from Medina’s condominium during the altercation.
What is quite shocking is the little remarked upon fact that when Medina left his residence to confess to his father before turning himself in, he apparently left Jennifer Alfonso’s 10-year-old daughter there alone in the condo with her dead mother. Although this is quite horrible to reflect upon, it’s entirely possible that Medina may have attempted to convince the little girl to come with him but she — appalled by the fact that he had just shot and killed her mother at the end of a terrible brawl — may have refused to come with him.
If the Derek Medina who writes the supernatural e-books is the same Derek Medina who killed Jennifer Alfonso, it suggests that he may suffer from some form of severe mental instability unless one accepts his claim that both he and his wife were attacked by a “demon ghost.”
But however one sifts the evidence — and more will certainly be revealed as this interesting case progresses — the bottom line is quite simple. Jennifer Alfonso would almost certainly be alive, and Derek Medina would almost certainly not be facing life in prison, was it not for the fact he owned a firearm which “reared its ugly head” during the fatal encounter.
Click here to view our previous post on this case: