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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Will Grice

Derek Medina: Man who posted picture of dead wife's body on Facebook found guilty of her murder

A man from Florida who killed his wife before posting a photo of her body on Facebook has been found guilty of second-degree murder.

Derek Medina, 33, of South Miami admitted taking a picture of Jennifer Alfonso, 27, and posting the image on social media after shooting her eight times in August 2013.  

During the trial Medina claimed he killed his wife in an act of self-defence after she threatened him with a knife, and that he’d been the victim of years of domestic abuse, CNN reported. 

However, prosecutors successfully argued Ms Alonso was in fear of her life when killed.  

Alongside the image on Facebook, Medina wrote that he was expecting to go to prison or be given the death sentence for killing Ms Aflonso, and asked his friends for their understanding of what he had done.

The court also heard Medina had vowed to kill his wife if she left, and that Ms Alfonso had told friends she intended to do so.

According to the BBC, Miami Dade State’s Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement: “No family should ever have to see their daughter killed and then exhibited world-wide on the internet like some macabre trophy to a husband’s anger, as was Jennifer Alfonso.

“Far too often this kind of domestic violence leads to injury and death. That’s why we must end all forms of domestic violence.”

The image stayed on Facebook for five hours before it was removed.

After killing his wife, Medina drove to see his family before turning himself into the police.

The couple’s young daughter was still in the house after the killing but was reported to have not been hurt.

Medina faces a sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment for the murder.

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