Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Disturbing Photos Show Florida Teen Stabbing Mom, Smiling Afterward: Prosecutor

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Photos released by Florida prosecutors show Derek Rosa, 13, smiling after he's accused of stabbing his mother to death in October. Prosecutors released the photos as part of a trove of evidence that includes a screen grab showing Derek standing over Irina Garcia, who was cradling her newborn baby -- Derek's half-sister. The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy shows the evidence police collected in this episode of Crime Fix - a daily show detailing the top stories in crime.SPONSOR:If you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome internet browser, you can find out if you have a claim in only a few clicks by visiting https://www.forthepeople.com/LCGoogleSee 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. as he's getting ready to stab her to death. Derek Rosa snapped a selfie after the crime, his hands smeared with blood. Law and Crime obtained these photos through a records request, and they're disturbing. On October 12th, a home security camera recorded Derek's mom, Irina Garcia, in bed with her 14-day-old daughter.

The baby was Derek's half-sister. You can actually see screen grabs of Derek standing over his mother, who is in bed holding the little baby girl. Photos also show the knife that prosecutors say Derek used to kill his mother. The tip of the knife is actually broken. After Derek killed his mom, police say he actually called 911 and confessed, reporting that he had killed his mom. He also took that selfie and texted a friend goodbye. Murder never makes sense, but this story is even more confusing since Derek was an honor roll student, which has people wondering, what went wrong here? So far,

prosecutors and investigators haven't commented on a motive. Derek Rosa is charged with murder. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. It's Tuesday and this is Crime Fix, law and crimes rundown of the top stories in crime. This next one you have to see to believe. In Arlington, Virginia, police were serving a search warrant on a house when it actually exploded. This all started Monday afternoon when police in Arlington got a call about a person in a house firing a flare gun into the neighborhood. That flare gun was fired 30 to 40 times and thankfully nothing was damaged and no one was hurt. Then police said they were executing a search warrant that night when the man in the house fired a gun inside the house and then boom, that's when the explosion happened. Police say three officers suffered minor injuries.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused that explosion. We have some news out of South Carolina's Lowcountry and the investigations into the clerk of court in Alec Murdoch's double murder trial. The prosecutor in that area has asked the attorney general to impanel a grand jury to investigate Becky Hill and her son. So things in this case are getting more serious. Fitz News was the first to report on the letter solicitor Duffy Stone sent to the attorney general and SLED asking that a statewide grand jury be impaneled. I spoke with research director Jen Wood of Fitz News.

They wanted the statewide grand jury to take over it because it is a wider public corruption investigation. And in the letter, it said that the state grand jury possesses considerable broader investigative authority than individual county grand juries. So it gives them the option of subpoenaing witnesses and pulling in witnesses. It's just a much better process for a public corruption investigation. Attorney General Alan Wilson wrote back to Stone saying his office would assume prosecutions related to the case. This is separate from the ethics investigation into Becky Hill, although some of the allegations may overlap. Fitz News first reported over the weekend that the feds were also looking into some accounts that Hill may have had access to in her role as clerk of court in

Colleton County. The sources that we have that are closely tied to the investigation have indicated that they are looking at funds within the clerk of court's office that are managed by Becky Hill. So whether or not they found anything, I'm not sure, but they have subpoenaed records from, I think they said seven separate funding accounts that come out of that office. And two of them that they're focused on are federal funding from the Department of Human Services for incentive pay for child support enforcement. So whether or not they found anything, I'm not sure, but we do know that

those records have been subpoenaed. And why would they do that though? Are they just dotting all of their I's and crossing their T's or do they have reason to look there? It sounded to me, so we've only seen one of the ethics complaints and it sounded to me like the second ethic complaint that we have not seen yet, but we've gotten some detail on. The second ethics complaint was focused on potential misallocations of funds out of the clerk of court's office. So I think that's what led to the broader subpoena of those financial records. Now you may recall Becky Hill's son, Colt Hill, was charged with wiretapping last month and fired from his job as IT director from the county. Fitz News reported that Becky Hill's cell phone was also seized as part of that investigation into her son.

The big question is, does any of this in any way relate to the allegations that Alec Murdoch is making against Becky Hill that she tampered with the jury in his double murder trial earlier this year. At this point, it doesn't appear that it does, and that that is a separate matter. Becky Hill has denied tampering with the jury in an affidavit submitted to the court. A hearing on that issue could be held early next year. Fitz News reports there are two ethics complaints filed against Becky Hill, one claiming she abused her position and stole money meant for the county. No one knows what is in the second complaint. I've requested both of them from the Ethics Commission, but those do not become public until the commission has vetted them and determined that there's probable cause that

the claims are true. Hill wrote a book about the Murdoch trial, something she was advised against doing. Newly filed court documents from Gabby Petito's parents claim Brian Laundrie's parents knew shortly after she died that their son had killed her and that they said nothing. The third amended complaint filed by the Petitos claims Brian Laundrie called his parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, on August 29, 2021, and frantically told them that Gabby was, quote, gone. The suit claims that was two days after Brian had killed Gabby in Wyoming. The suit lays out a timeline for when the Laundries hired attorney Stephen Bertolino. The suit claims Bertolino retained lawyers in Wyoming to represent

Brian Laundrie in a criminal case days later. Two weeks later, Bertolino issued the following statement knowing that Brian Laundrie had murdered Gabby, according to the complaint. This is understandably an extremely difficult time for both the Petito family and the Laundrie family. It is our understanding that a search has been organized for Ms. Petito in or near Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. On behalf of the Laundrie family, it is our hope that the search for Ms. Petito is successful and that Ms. Petito is reunited with her family. The Petitos claim that statement caused them pain and suffering because it was a lie and the Laundries and their lawyer knew at the time

that gabby was dead and would never be reunited with her family the civil lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial next year i actually spoke with stephen bertolino in october of 2021 about the laundries and not contacting the potatoes after they knew that gabby was missing gabby petito was going to be their daughter-in-law at some point. She was engaged to their son. And, you know, a lot of people can't understand why the Laundries wouldn't speak to the Petitos when they're desperately looking for their daughter. Can you elaborate on that?

And do they have anything to say to the Petitos now? Well, working backwards, I can tell you at this moment in time, we have, you know, nothing to say to the Petito family. Right now, Chris and Roberto Laundrie are just focusing on, you know, retrieving Brian's remains from the medical examiner's office, grieving their sons and dealing with that. And in the future, you know, we'll see what happens. With respect to, you know, not speaking to the Petito family in the beginning, you know, we'll see what happens with respect to, you know, not speaking to the Petito family in the beginning. You know, that was on me. That was something that I told them they shouldn't be doing. And we're just going to leave it at that. Did they want to speak to the Petito family in the beginning? And Jeanette, I can tell you it's not about what they wanted.

It's about what I told them they needed to do. Brian Laundrie admitted to murdering Gabby in a suicide note before taking his own life in a Florida park. Wow. That's body camera video out of Volusia County, Florida. Last Thursday night, a deputy saw a car with felony warrants and tried to pull over the driver. As you saw, 21-year-old Timothy Childs Jr. backed up and bagged right into the cruiser and then took off. But deputies eventually caught up with him. Sheriff's office, get on! You're going to get bit! Sheriff's office, get on! You're going to get bit! Come out now! Sheriff's office, get on! Come out! Deputies continued to tell Chiles to walk toward them, but he said he couldn't, so they walked toward him in some tall grass. Hands up! Keep your hands up! I got him up, I swear to God, please! You got Leslie, fool?

Yes. I got him up, I swear to God, man. I got him up. Crawl over the fence. Eventually, Chiles followed the commands and climbed over the fence. It's gonna get bad for you in a second. Let me get over the fence. Stop being a little.

You made it over there. Now get on the ground. Get on the ground. I'm down, bro. I'm down, man. I ain't in your car. I'm not even with you guys. What are y'all doing?

I'm not resisting y'all or nothing. Yeah, you weren't resisting when you smashed the f*** out of that patrol car, were you? No, y'all hit me in the back. Oh, shut the f*** up. Childs is in the Volusia County Jail on a long list of charges, including resisting an officer without violence, driving on a suspended license, fleeing, and a probation violation. Another guy in jail in Volusia County is in big, big trouble, accused of 33 counts of possession of child pornography. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children got a tip about Markel Kirk. Investigators with the Volusia Sheriff's Child Exploitation Unit got a search warrant and found child porn on Kirk's electronic

devices. The sheriff says the victims range in age from infancy to 10 years old. In Los Angeles, police say one man murdered four people over four days, including a father of two young children. 33-year-old Jared Joseph Powell is accused of following a man home in this car last week and shooting him in his garage and then murdering three homeless people over the following days. The first victim, Nicholas Simbalan, lived in a suburb of L.A. and worked for the county. Police say Powell was captured by surveillance cameras. And the result of their work has positively identified the handgun recovered from Mr. Powell's car as being the murder weapon of our three homicides.

Additionally, our investigation has documented Mr. Powell's vehicle as being at the murder scene of all three homicides. Police say license plate readers helped track down Powell. He's in the Los Angeles County Jail, charged with four counts of murder. And that's it for this edition of Crime Fix on this Tuesday, December 5th of 2023. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We will see you right back here tomorrow.