"Facebook killing" suspect was battered by wife, attorney says
MIAMI -- A man who killed his wife and posted a photo of her corpse on Facebook shot her in self-defense because he lived in fear of her drug abuse, violent tendencies and even Satan worship, the man's attorney said Monday.
Defense attorney Saam Zangeneh said Monday that he will seek to introduce evidence that 27-year-old Jennifer Alfonso was an avid user of synthetic drugs such as Ecstasy, that she battered her husband and that she was deeply involved in the occult and Satan worship.
CBS Miami reports that a Miami-Dade judge spent most of the day Monday deciding what evidence jurors will be allowed to see and hear in the first-degree murder trial.
Jury selection begins Tuesday for Derek Medina, 33, who faces life in prison if convicted of the August 2013 slaying at the couple's South Miami home. Medina has been jailed since his arrest.
The case gained national attention because Medina posted the photo of Alfonso's body on Facebook, admitting in the post that he killed her and would likely go to prison. In later interviews with police, however, he said it was self-defense.
Zangeneh said Alfonso started the fight, which escalated to the point where she came after Medina with a knife. He then shot her.
"She initiated a confrontation. My client tried to calm her down," Zangeneh said during a hearing on trial evidence before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny.
Prosecutor Scott Dunn urged Colodny to limit defense use of the allegations involving Alfonso, reminding the judge that she is the victim and is not on trial.
"It is not open season on a victim just because a defendant is claiming self-defense," Dunn said.
CBS Miami reports that Medina's attorneys plan to argue self-defense and have said they plan to prove he suffered from "battered husband syndrome."
However, Dunn asked the judge to be able to balance that testimony by showing jurors videos posted to YouTube, which portray Medina boxing in what appears to be a training studio.
"If he alleges that he was in fear of Ms. Alfonso and under the state's theory that she was unarmed and punching him, according to his statement, then the court will find that one video can be used. I will ask the state choose that video and let the defense know," Judge Colodny said.
The prosecution will seek to cast doubt on the self-defense claim with evidence that Medina was an accomplished amateur boxer who had little to fear from his physically weaker wife. Other evidence shows that Medina had years earlier told a friend he would kill Alfonso if she ever tried to leave him, which her friends said was her plan.
Colodny ruled that the evidence involving the Alfonso allegations could only be used if the proper legal foundation is laid for the jury. She also imposed some limits on the prosecution's use of the Medina boxing evidence.
"I'm not going to permit fishing expeditions," she said. "We're going to keep it to the facts of the case."