Home security videos showed a Florida mother breastfeeding a newborn shortly before she was allegedly stabbed to death by her 13-year-old son, who is then seen on one of the videos calmly speaking to police.
State prosecutors on Wednesday released four short video clips of moments before and after Derek Rosa allegedly killed his mother, Irina Garcia, 39, as she was sleeping in front of the infant in their Hialeah apartment on Oct. 12.
In one 6-second clip, he’s telling someone on the phone, “two hundred and one,” which appears to be his apartment number. And in the other 6-second clip, he appears to be mumbling in Spanish to his mom about a possession of theirs that’s apparently not operating properly.
Then in the most chilling clip, which lasted 8 seconds, Rosa could be seen walking into the apartment with his breastfeeding mother and 14-day-old sister sitting in a comfortable chair in the background.
In the final 10-second clip, taken after the stabbing of Garcia is believed to have happened, it appeared that Rosa was speaking to police, calmly saying: “I see officers, I see officers. Do I leave my house?”
A female voice on the other line could be heard: “Do not leave, stay there, wait.”
A group of police officers are then briefly seen arriving in the parking lot as red and blue lights swirl around them.
Rosa has been charged with first-degree murder in connection to the deaths of his mother and her newborn baby. His case has been placed in the adult felony court system.
The boy’s attorney said it’s impossible to make any meaningful conclusions from a few seconds of footage.
“I think those clips, along with everything else that has been released, shows that the defense is entitled to and needs the entirerty of all evidence, not handpicked bits and pieces,” defense lawyer Dayliset Rielo said in statement on Thursday.
Hialeah police have said the stabbing happened around 11:30 p.m. and that officers responded after they got a call from the teen saying he’d murdered his mother, NBC Miami previously reported. Officers found Garcia dead in her bedroom, stabbed over 40 times, next to a crib where the baby was found unharmed.
Rosa is heard on audio of the 911 call, released last year and obtained by NBC News, telling police he took photos of his mother’s body and sent them to a friend on social media.
The dispatcher is heard asking him, “I need to know if your mom is breathing.” Rosa responded, “Ma’am, she’s dead,” adding that there’s “blood all over the floor.”
He said his baby sister was sleeping in her crib. Asked whether he harmed her, he replied: “I did not touch her. I didn’t want to touch my sister.”
