Pastor Calls Facebook Murder Suspect "Complex"
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The pastor of a church described a South Miami man who reportedly killed his wife and confessed to it in a Facebook posting "a complex, multidimensional person."
Derek Medina posted a picture of his dead wife Thursday morning on a Facebook page attributed to him. Medina then went to the South Miami Police Department to turn himself in. When officers arrived at his townhouse at 5555 SW 67 Avenue, they found the body of Medina's wife - 26-year old Jennifer Alfonso - slumped on the floor.
Rev. Frank Corbishley, of St. Bede Episcopal Chapel in Coral Gables, told CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald that Medina "Is a complex, multidimensional person just like everybody else. "That's why everyone is shocked."
Because Medina is on suicide watch, Corbishley has not been able to speak to him.
Corbishley met Medina 19 years ago. He and his grandfather volunteered at services by carrying the cross, lighting candles and holding the Gospel. In later years, Medina withdrew from the church but would still stop by every once in a while, said Corbishley.
Last May, when Medina's grandfather was in a car accident, Medina took over his role as an acolyte, Corbishley told the paper. The 31-year-old helped out with Father's Day service and Pentecost Sunday.
Corbishley said Medina brought his wife Alfonso to a service in May and said he didn't see any signs of trouble.
"I thought of him as a fairly typical 30-year-old," Corbishley told the paper. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary."
According to the police affidavit, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Medina said the couple became involved in a heated argument in an upstairs bedroom when he armed himself with a gun and pointed it at her. He said Alfonso left the bedroom, returning later to say she was leaving him. He says he went downstairs and confronted her in the kitchen, when she began punching him. He claims he went back upstairs to get his gun and confronted her again, at which time she grabbed a knife. Medina said he was able to disarm her and put the knife in a drawer, but that when she began punching him again, he shot her several times, the affidavit says.
Alfonso's 10-year-old daughter was in the home at the time but was not hurt. She is now in the custody of her biological father, according to authorities.
Prior to turning himself in, Medina apparently posted a photo of his wife's bloodied body slumped on the floor. In his status line, he apparently wrote, "I'm going to prison or death sentence for killing my wife love you guys, miss you guys take care Facebook people you will see me in the news."
Jennifer Alfonso's father told CBS4 the couple had a rocky relationship getting married and divorced in the span of a couple of years.
"With Facebook and YouTube, he liked self-promoting himself, but for him to do something like this I'd have never expected never expected," said Jose Alfonso.
You can find Derek medina in multiple videos on YouTube and Amazon sells his e-book titled "How I saved someone's life and marriage and family problems thru communication" in which a character saves his marriage after getting divorced and remarried to the same person.
The plotline eerily similar to Medina's own situation but in real life, the ending turned tragic.
"A lot of arguing, but physical stuff this is the first that I had heard," said Alfonso.
CBS4 also spoke to Medina's father, Derek Medina Sr.
"They are making my son into an animal," said the suspect's father.
He believes his son was simply defending himself.
"He was scared of her all his life, all the relationship, because he always reported to me that he would get beaten by her," said Medina Sr. "She pushed him to the point of insanity."
Medina, who has been charged with first degree murder, is being held without bond on the ninth-floor psychiatric ward of the county jail pending his arraignment.
CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed to this report.
