MIAMI – A South Florida man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his wife.
Derek Medina, 33, was accused of fatally shooting Jennifer Alfonso, 27, in the kitchen of their South Miami townhouse in August 2013. Police said Medina uploaded a photo of her body to Facebook after the shooting.
The 12-panel jury also found Medina guilty of firing a deadly missile and child neglect as the verdict was read Wednesday. Alfonso's daughter was home when her mother was killed, but she did not witness the shooting.
Defense attorneys for Medina argued that he killed his wife in self-defense after she charged at him with a knife, but prosecutors said during the trial that Medina emptied the clip when he shot Alfonso and even had time to stop and take a picture of her body before he turned himself in to police.
It was what the defense wasn't able to present during the trial that Medina's attorney said might have made a difference in the outcome.
"They could have been swayed if they would have heard a history of abuse," defense attorney Saam Zangeneh told reporters after the trial. "I don't know if they would have been swayed if they would have heard about her drug use. I don't know if they would have been swayed if we would have had our crime scene re-constructionist being able to explain shadow placement, which would have buttressed our position that she had a knife."
Medina didn't testify in the trial, so jurors never got a chance to hear his explanation about what happened that day.
"No family should ever have to see their daughter killed and then exhibited worldwide on the Internet like some macabre trophy to a husband's anger as was Jennifer Alfonso," Miami-Dade County state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement after the verdict. "Far, far too often this kind of domestic violence leads to injury and death. That's why we all must end all forms of domestic violence. The jury carefully viewed all the evidence and came to the correct conclusion that Derek Medina coldly murdered his wife to heal his own injured ego."
Local 10 News crime specialist John Turchin spoke to Alfonso's mother outside the courthouse after the verdict.
"It's a horrible situation, and there's no happy ending here," Carolyn Anderson-Knox told Local 10.
Medina's sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 11. Prosecutors said they will seek life in prison for Medina.
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Derek Medina is accused of killing his wife and then posting a picture of her body on Facebook.