Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 13-Year-Old Calmly Admits To Cutting His Mom's Throat as Baby Slept Nearby: Video

Episode Date: January 2, 2024

Derek Rosa, 13, detailed in chilling fashion how he cut his mother's throat and stabbed her more than 40 times as his newborn half-sister slept in a crib next to her last October. Rosa faces a murder charge in the death of his mother, Irina Garcia, in Miami-Dade County. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy breaks down parts of the confession and talks with Miami lawyer Gigi Gonzalez about the case and how Rosa's lawyers might handle it in this episode of Crime Fix - a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Who killed her? All right. What type of knife was it? Just a big base education knife. Derek Rosa, the 13-year-old boy caught on camera killing his mother, lays out in detail how he did it in an interview with police. But why he did it remains a mystery.

I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Tuesday, and this is Crime Fix, law and crime's look at the biggest stories in crime. Derek Rosa is just 13 years old. He's in the eighth grade and he's facing a murder charge for the stabbing death of his mother, Irina Garcia. She'd just given birth to Derek's half-sister a week earlier. The baby was sleeping in a crib next to her mom when Derek said he stabbed her last October

in their apartment in Hialeah, Florida. We've obtained a copy of his police interview. And listening to Derek, it's hard to believe he's only 13. Take a look. You go to school, right? What grade are you in? Eighth grade. Eighth grade?

Good student? A's and stuff like that? A's and B's. The detectives very plainly explained to Derek that he's under no obligation to speak to them. Pretty standard stuff when it comes to being interviewed by police. Okay, read the second line. You have the right to remain silent. Okay, you understand that?

Yeah. Okay, write your name again if you understand that. Okay. Okay, write your name again if you understand that. Okay, read this line right here. Anything you say, Karen, and it will be used against you in court. Okay, you understand that? Go ahead, the same procedure. Just go ahead and put your initials. Or your signature. Derek said he understood, and he declined to have a lawyer present,

which is kind of interesting given the fact that he's only 13. So it makes you wonder, did he really understand what he was doing? He explained how he lived with his mom, his weak old half-sister, and his stepdad who was out of town at the time. He explained what happened hours earlier. So you went to sleep around 10? Yeah. Okay. And then what? He explained what happened hours earlier. All right. What type of knife was it? Do you know?

It was a big size kitchen knife. That big? Yeah. What color was the handle? Purple. Purple? Yes. Okay.

Your mom was sleeping? Yeah, she was sleeping. Okay. Um... And then Derek talks about how he intended to take his own life. So I went into the closet. Mm-hmm. I found his book because he goes shooting at gun ranges. Okay. I grabbed the gun.

I put the magazine in the gun. Okay. I pulled back to slide, but I didn't want to shoot myself. Okay. I intended to shoot myself before, but I couldn't. Okay. Derek explains how he called an online friend he met through playing video games. They'd known each other for about three years.

The details of what he told Sweden are redacted. Did you send them any pictures? Yes. How many pictures Did you send them any pictures? Yes. How many pictures did you send them? I sent them two of my mom and one of me. Okay. Did you... What did he tell you?

He said he couldn't believe it. Derek then said he called 911 to report what he had done. Where exactly did you cut her? At first, I cut her right here. On her neck? It's like a type of vein that goes through your neck right here on both sides. Okay. And you stab here, a lot of blood springs out, right?

Do you know what that's called? An artery or something. An artery? Yeah. Okay. And you purposely went for the artery? Purposely, I just went for the neck. But I hit the artery.

Okay. Was there a lot of blood after? There was a big pot of blood on the floor. We've shown you before here on Crime Fix that photos from a home security camera show Derek standing over his mother. She was laying in bed. Other photos show the knife that Derek said that he used to stab his mom as she slept.

He showed the detectives where he stabbed her. Why did you stab your mom? Can I go to the bathroom before I answer that? Yes, of course. Give me one second. So you were about to tell me the why.

Why did you kill your mother? Do you know? Do I have to say it now? Yeah, get it off your chest. Absolutely. I can only throw it away. Okay, at this point, you want a lawyer? Maybe not. We can't. No, listen, at this point, you want a lawyer? I mean... We can't...

No, listen, listen. Just so you understand, okay? You have mentioned or asked us, should you wait for a lawyer? We're not here to advise you on whether to talk to a lawyer or not. That decision is yours, okay? But if you are requesting a lawyer at this point, we can't interview you any further. In the same, we have to stop the interview. Okay. Do you want us to stop the interview?

Yes. So there, the interview stopped. Police really had no choice. Once somebody asks for a lawyer or mentions a lawyer, the interview has to stop. As calm and cool as Derek seemed in the body camera footage last month in court, Once somebody asks for a lawyer or mentions a lawyer, the interview has to stop. As calm and cool as Derek seemed in the body camera footage last month in court, the seriousness of the situation appeared to be weighing on him. He held his head in his hands during a hearing where that interview played.

Joining me to discuss this interrogation video and Derek Rosa is Gigi Gonzalez. She is a defense attorney in the Miami area and a frequent guest here on Law and Crime. Gigi, welcome to Crime Fix. Thanks for coming on. Hey, thank you so much for having me, Anjana. It's a pleasure to be here. Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you and I'm sorry it's about something so heinous, as heinous as this. Something that's really bothering me about this is the fact that this is a 13-year-old. He's obviously a smart kid. It's chilling to watch this. I know that word seems to be overused at times, but he very calmly and very matter-of-factly describes murdering his mother. And I'm wondering what you think as an attorney watching this. Just, yeah, I woke up and I got a knife and I stabbed my mom. You know, it's not usual for a 13-year-old to even be involved in this kind of crime.

I mean, the reason why it's so chilling is because you can't imagine a 13-year-old standing over his mother's body and sleeping body and stabbing her over 40 times. I mean, it's just not the type of crime that you imagine teenagers getting involved with. The fact that he's able to recall what he did to his mother in such a calm manner, to be able to illustrate and to point to where he stabbed his mother, what he said to her, if she said anything back without even cracking his voice or taking really think about, you know, what is going on in this young boy's mind that he is able to not only perform such a chilling act, but to be able to describe it in such a calm manner. What do you make of this, though? I mean, I'm looking at this kid. He's a kid. He doesn't, he kind of projects a little older, but he's still 13 years old. He's talking about playing video games. He's texting or messaging a friend afterwards who he's been friends with online through the video game community or what

have you for three years. So he was 10 back then. He tells his friend what he did. His friend's like, what? I can't believe you did that. What did you do? And he's just kind of talking about this. I mean, what do you do with this as an attorney? I just don't get it. It's horrifying. And the little baby is sleeping next to mom, his little weak old half sister. What do you do with this? Oh, yeah. If you get into the details of it, it just becomes even harder to imagine. I mean, the fact that he committed this crime against mom while his infant sister is sleeping is just, it's gruesome. What you do with this is you try to explore what kind of mental health defenses are available to him. Was this a boy getting the treatment that he needed?

Was he diagnosed appropriately? Is this a situation where, you know, video games corrupted his sensibilities. I mean, there's really no telling. From the pictures and from the support that his family has been giving him throughout this event, you could see that he comes from a caring family. Folks love him and believe in him receiving justice despite what he's committed here. So I have to wonder if there's some sort of issue,

mental health issue at play that prevented him from truly understanding what he did at the time, because, I mean, the fact that he's able to describe it with seemingly no remorse or emotion must indicate some sort of mental incapacity or mental illness. He's very cognizant of what's going on. They go through the Miranda waiver form with him. He understands exactly what they're saying. I mean, they kind of had to explain the word coerced to him, but all in all, he gets it. And later on in the interview, they ask him why he did it. And he's like, well, let me go to the bathroom first and I'll tell you. And then he gets up and he goes to well let me go to the bathroom first and i'll tell you and then he gets

up and he goes to the bathroom he comes back a few minutes later and then he's they kind of get back around to it and he's like oh yeah now i want a lawyer because he doesn't want to say why he did it without a lawyer so he's he's a smart kid i mean he's 13 he's a child but he's smart enough to know that all of the sudden he should be asking for a lawyer, even though it's all caught on video. So I'm confounded by all of this. You know, watching a 13 year old who did this, then calls 911 and rats himself out. He tells on himself. And then he recounts all of this and then and then gives a full statement to police and then lawyers up i i'm just i'm at a loss for words i think that goes to show that he's not truly aware completely of what's going on here i mean you would think that someone who's aware of his rights and that regard, that he knows he should lawyer up, is the first person he's calling a police dispatcher

to tell on himself? Is he gonna be sitting with police officers for 20 minutes or so without telling them in every detail what he did, what he said? And then all of a sudden when the question of why comes up, that's when he decides to lawyer up. I mean, he's either smart enough to know not to talk to cops or not smart enough to realize he shouldn't be talking to cops. Either way, I mean, the mere fact that he asks for a lawyer after being interrogated to the point where everything else he said is going to be held against him, it's going to be used as a confession, as an admission.

The fact that he doesn't admit the why of it, is that really telling us that he's smart enough to know not to talk to cops? I don't know. He seems pretty smart to me. He knew full well what he was doing. I mean, I think they were even surprised as they were going through the Miranda form with them because he said, well, I don't really do initials. I do a signature. And the one cop kept looking up at the other cop. They're like dumbfounded because I know what they're used to dealing with. You know what they're used to dealing with. They're used to dealing with hardened criminals.

They're used to dealing with people who are going to play the game and dance the dance and deny it or ask for a lawyer right away. That's what they're used to. I mean, this is a kid who killed his mom. You know, he might be pleading not guilty at this point, but it's all on tape. And he's on, it's on video. You know, there's the crime is on video, but then he's on video admitting to it. So I, I'm, I'm at a loss for where they go with this, his lawyers or,

or anything. I mean, like you said, it's you've got his confession to the 911 dispatcher. You've got his confession to the police officers. You've got the nanny cam that captures him standing over his mom's sleeping body before he actually commits the murder. I mean, the evidence is stacked up against him.

If we're discussing a potential defense, I don't think any defense lawyer can say, Derek Rosa didn't do it. I think the only shot he's got is to try and get into his mind and figure out if he did this because of some sort of, you know, by reason of insanity, or he's got some sort of mental defect that prevents him from really understanding this. And like you said, he's obviously smart enough to be able to ask for a lawyer and to understand the questions that are being asked of him. Now the question is, does he actually realize what he did? Does he understand

what he did? And those are the things that the experts are going to have to get into in order to try to mitigate the situation. He said that he went to look for his stepdad's gun or one of his stepdad's guns in order to try to take his own life and couldn't do it. What do you think of that? I think that's the moment maybe he snaps to or realizes maybe this is going too far, because it's one thing, you know, when you're a 13 year old kid to act in such a way without understanding the consequences. But when you're committing the act against yourself, you're a way without understanding the consequences. But when you're committing the act against yourself, you're suddenly very aware of the consequences. If I take this gun and shoot myself and kill myself, that's over. It's a very interesting case. I mean, what's really sad about

this is we're trying to get to the head of a 13-year-old kid who committed this. I think it's easy when it's an adult to say, oh, they should have known, and there's no way you could stab someone over 40 times and think they're going to survive. But this is a 13-year-old who is not thinking with the mentality of consequences. He's thinking of the mentality of, I feel something, and I have to take care of it right now. And again, this is going to come down to a battle of the experts. The state's experts are going to say that this kid knew very well what he was doing. And the defense experts are going to try to figure out if there's a mental illness or a mental defect that prevented him from truly understanding the situation. We will have to wait and see. He's in court this week for just kind of a procedural type hearing. We'll see where it goes from there.

Gigi Gonzalez, thank you so much for coming on Crime Fix. We appreciate it. And thanks for having me. Always a pleasure, Anjanette. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. Thanks for joining us on this Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024. I'm Anjanette Levy. We will see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a great night.