Left: Derek Rosa, second from left, appears in court for sentencing in Florida (Law&Crime). Right: A screenshot of surveillance footage from the bedroom of Rosa’s murder victim (Office of the Miami-Dade State Attorney).
After years of legal wrangling, a Florida teenager has admitted his legal culpability for the fatal stabbing of his own mother as she lay in her bed.
On Friday, Derek Rosa, now 15, pleaded guilty to one count of murder in the second degree in a Miami-Dade County courtroom, capping a long-running legal saga over the brutal slaying of Irina Garcia, 39.
On Oct. 12, 2023, the defendant was all of 13 years old when he stabbed his mother over 40 times at the family’s apartment in Hialeah – a large city located just north of Miami International Airport.
Rosa faced a first-degree murder charge if he went to trial, which was scheduled to begin next week. But in a last-minute switch, he admitted to the lesser charge in exchange for a sentence of 25 years in prison, which was accepted by 11th Circuit Court Judge Richard Hersch.
“I’m sorry,” the teenager said, in a two-word allocution.
As Law&Crime previously reported, on the day of the crime, Rosa himself called 911 at 11:30 p.m., saying he stabbed his mother to death. Officers arrived at the apartment and found Garcia’s body next to a crib holding Rosa’s 14-day-old half-sister, police said.
The brutal slaying “left everybody dumbfounded,” police said. The spokesperson described Rosa as an eighth-grade honor roll student. Friends and family described the defendant as a “good kid” and a straight-A student. The teenager had no history of mental health issues and there was no record of fighting in the family, police added.
After his arrest, prosecutors charged Rosa as an adult, leading to an outcry from his father about the severity of the prosecution.
“It’s very unfortunate that this tragedy occurred, but this child is very humble, very respectful, and nobody could have imagined that this would ever happen,” Jose Rosa told local ABC affiliate WPLG. “He’s a child. Nobody in the house, in the family, sees him as a grown man.”
Over time, prosecutors slowly released disturbing bits of evidence.
First, the full 911 call audio painted a chilling aftermath and raised even more questions about the lead-up to the killing.
“Miss?” Rosa said in the call.
“Yes?” the dispatcher answered.
“I took pictures and I told my friends about it,” Rosa said. “Was that bad?”
When the dispatcher asked the killer to elaborate on who received the pictures, Rosa simply said it was his friend.
“I don’t know his real name because he’s an online friend who I play with a lot,” he said.
Then came the surveillance footage.
In a still image, the victim is seen in bed holding what appears to be her infant daughter with the lights on at 10:23 p.m. Then, later that night, in a still timestamped 11 p.m., a male figure stands, one arm outstretched over the bed in the now-darkened room.
In another, non-surveillance image, Rosa appears in a selfie as he makes a shaka – or “hang loose” – sign with his hand covered in what appears to be his mother’s blood.
Earlier this month, the judge ruled jurors would be privy to the state’s gruesome evidence — including a videotaped confession where Rosa calmly admits to killing his mother and sending the image of her dead body to his online video game friend, Law&Crime previously reported.
Defense attorneys argued in a motion that the video should be suppressed because Rosa at his young age did not fully comprehend what he was doing when speaking to investigators.
Hersch rejected that argument, saying the defendant was intelligent enough to waive his Miranda rights and that detectives were not coercive when questioning him about the murder.
After several days of such incriminating evidence reaching jurors’ ears, and ample time to think things through, Rosa changed his tune.
“Your mom was a loving mother, dedicated, an excellent person,” Rosa’s stepfather said through a translator during Friday’s hearing. “Losing her destroyed our family and changed our lives forever.”
After the abrupt plea change, Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle issued a statement:
With today’s guilty plea Derek Rosa admitted what he had previously told a 911 operator and what he had confessed to police detectives, that he murdered his mother. The pain Irina Garcia suffered from the 46 stab wounds could only have been surpassed by the knowledge that the person killing her was her own young son. The conclusion of this criminal case does not diminish the deep tragedy of Derek’s actions. When he stole his mother’s life, he also stole so much of his own future.
The defendant will receive credit for time served in pretrial detention. Once he is released, Rosa will be subject to 20 years of probation.
