Derek Medina, 33, also known as the “Facebook Killer,” has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2013 shooting death of his wife, Jennifer Alfonso. Following the killing, in which Alfonso was shot eight times, Medina posted a picture of her body that he took with his cell phone on Facebook.
Medina, who admitted taking the photo and posting it on the social media site, claimed that he shot Alfonso during an argument in which she used a knife to threaten him. He is planning to appeal his conviction, stating he did not get a fair trial.
During Medina’s sentencing Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny told Medina that he had foretold his future when he wrote on Facebook “I am going to prison.”
Prosecutors claimed during the trial that Medina had promised to murder his wife if she ever tried to leave him. He was charged with second-degree murder after a jury last year refused to believe that he was acting in self-defense.
Because the couple’s 10-year-old daughter was upstairs in the house at the time of the killing, Medina has also been given 5 years for childhood neglect, to be served concurrently. Although the child apparently did not witness the murder or see her mother’s body, she was left alone in the house for several hours while her father went to turn himself in to police. Also to be served concurrently is a 15-year sentence for firing a weapon inside the house.
According to testimony by a medical examiner, the way Alfonso’s body was found made it appear that the 5-foot-6 woman was squatting in a corner of their small kitchen, trying to defend herself. Considering that her husband is 6 feet and 200 pounds, prosecutors claim that shooting her eight times was unnecessary.
Alfonso’s family asked Judge Colodny to impose the maximum possible sentence on Medina. He must serve at least 25 years before becoming eligible for parole.