by Patrick H. Moore
Social media is on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. It certainly was the first thing on 31-year-old South Miami resident Derek Medina’s mind last summer after he’d shot and killed his 26-year-old wife Jennifer Alonso, and without further ado, began posting on Facebook about what he had done, why he had done it, and how he was going to prison for killing her. Since then, however, he has pleaded not guilty based on a claim of self-defense. His attorneys are claiming that Ms. Alonso was on a “bath salt” derivative at the time of the shooting and had become deranged and dangerous, the implication being Medina had no choice other than to shoot her.
We’ll get to the defense’s claim in a bit. First though, let’s review the slaying and Medina’s strange need to immediately inform everyone on Facebook.
At 11:11 am on the morning of the shooting, the following post appeared on Medina’s Facebook site:
“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.”
No one is required to employ the King’s English on Facebook and I certainly don’t fault Slayer Derek for garbling his syntax and punctuation. What I am impressed by is all the information he packs into a mere 27 words. Let’s break it down. First he says:
“Im going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife…”
This is a tad bit melodramatic. Without knowing more about the case, it seems unlikely that Derek would get the death penalty for shooting and killing his wife, unless there are unknown aggravating factors. He is, however, likely to pull a life sentence.
The second part of the sentence says:
“… love you guys miss you guys takecare Facebook people…”
These sentiments on Derek’s part show that he is not entirely without redeeming features. He “loves” his FB buddies, is going to “miss” them, and remembers — like all good friends — to remind them to “takecare” and in the same breath gives FB a shout-out. There’s no reason to think he’s not sincere about all of this.
The Derek completes his thought by saying, perhaps prophetically:
“… you will see me in the news.”
A great many people who use FB enjoy posting endless details about their everyday actions believing that the everyday and commonplace equals “real news.” In Derek’s case, by killing his wife, he has transcended the desire to create news and has actually become the “news”.
So, in essence, in the first and last sections of his sentence, Derek provides two salient bits of news: 1) that he has killed his wife and is going to pay a heavy price for it. and 2) the news that he is has become the “news”. In between these two important points, Derek more or less bids farewell to his FB crew. It is almost a poignant moment.
But wait, Derek is not through yet. A few seconds after his grammatical tour de force, Derek posts a photograph with an enigmatic caption. The photo is of his dead wife. She has either died in an awkward position or Derek has staged her awkwardly for maximum effect. She is lying on her back on the floor, wearing a black leotard. Her legs are bent backwards and there is blood on her left arm and left cheek. The picture of his dead wife is accompanied by the caption: “Rip Jennifer Alfonso.” I can’t help wondering what the “Rip” is all about. It could, of course, mean “Rest in Peace” but it could also mean “Rip” as in “rip her apart” or “rip into her” which is obviously what the bullet(s) did.
The photo was up for more than five hours before the Facebook people removed the page late Thursday afternoon.
In his post, Derek couldn’t resist trying — at least to some degree — to justify the murder. He claimed that his wife was punching him and that he wasn’t going to take any more abuse. It should be mentioned, however, that YouTube videos linked to his Facebook page earlier this week show him working out in a martial arts studio, punching and kicking a heavy bag.
Derek and Jennifer first married in January 2010. They divorced in February 2012 and then remarried three months later.
On his Facebook page Derek claimed he had appeared in the Miami-based crime drama “Burn Notice.” The evidence shows, however, that his name doesn’t appear in the online credits for the show.
Without belaboring the obvious, it appears that if he couldn’t act in a crime drama, he had to create his own.
The police questioned various individuals who were gathered outside the couple’s condominium and although some of the bystanders were crying, no one seemed to have an explanation for why the couple’s troubles had brought them to this fatal impasse.
After completing his FB posts, Derek turned himself into the authorities.
* * * * *
The issue — as I see it — is simple yet complex. Can living an existence that is weirdly divided between living in the “real world” and living in the world of social media cause some unstable individuals to, in effect, lose sight of what is real and what is not to such a degree that they kill or do some other crazy thing for absolutely no reason other than to be able to post about it on FB or some other social media platform? Perhaps…
Fortunately, most of us, no matter how addicted we become to social media, manage to maintain some hold on reality.
Here is what Medina’s attorneys are claiming :
In a surprising twist, Derek Medina’s defense attorneys want to independently test the victim, Jennifer Alfonso’s remains for a drug called Alpha PVP, which can be abused for its ecstasy-like effects.
“We want to be able to do a toxicology scan of her tissue samples to see if there’s any trace of having that inside of her,” defense attorney Saam Zangeneh told the Daily News.
Medina has previously claimed he killed his 26-year-old wife in self-defense. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder Dec. 4, WTVJ reported.
The defense says it found “suspect pills” in a jar for garlic supplements in the couple’s South Miami townhouse. He said surveillance footage shows her reach into that cabinet about 2:30 the morning of the murder.
“We had them analyzed by a company. The result was there were 10 pills that had Alpha PVP, the active ingredient in bath salts,” Zangeneh said.
The medical examiner already performed a toxicology report which came back clean. But Zangeneh says that the test only scans for marijuana, cocaine and so forth. They think the Alpha PVP, a “new drug,” may have been overlooked.
“You cannot find what you’re not looking for,” he said.
The Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney said that defendants have the legal right to conduct their own analysis of the state’s evidence in any criminal case.