MIAMI — Four days before his first-degree murder trial was set to begin, 15-year-old Derek Rosa pleaded guilty Friday to killing his mother in 2023.
Rosa pleaded guilty to second-degree murder instead, getting a 25-year sentence under a deal with prosecutors.
Hialeah police said Rosa, then 13, stabbed his 39-year-old mother, Irina Garcia, 46 times as she slept next to her newborn daughter at their apartment at 211 W. 79th Place on Oct. 12, 2023.
Rosa simply said, “I’m sorry,” just before Judge Richard Hersch sentenced him to a quarter-century in prison.
Just before Rosa’s brief words of contrition, his stepfather, Frank Ramos, told him, “Nothing justifies what you did,” as he spoke through a Spanish translator in court.
“Your mother was a loving mother and a dedicated person,” he said. “Losing her destroyed our family and changed our lives forever.”
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle issued a statement following the plea, saying Rosa “admitted what he had previously told a 911 operator and what he had confessed to police detectives, that he murdered his mother.”
“The pain Irina Garcia suffered from the 46 stab wounds could only have been surpassed by the knowledge that the person killing her was her own young son,” she said. “The conclusion of this criminal case does not diminish the deep tragedy of Derek’s actions. When he stole his mother’s life, he also stole so much of his own future.”
With his plea, Rosa avoided a high-profile trial. Jury selection in the case was scheduled to begin on Tuesday.
A number of hearings were held in recent months ahead of the trial, including unsuccessful attempts by his defense team to have key pieces of evidence ― including the teenager’s confession ― thrown out.
In court filings, prosecutors said Rosa was obsessed with blood and gore in the period leading up to the killing.
Prosecutors said in a court filing that the day before the killing, he told a friend he wanted to be the murderous, machete-wielding character Jason from the “Friday the 13th” horror movie.
They said on the day of the killing, he showed a “gruesome” suicide video of a U.S. Army veteran to his girlfriend on the school bus; she broke up with him later that day.
After the killing, prosecutors said Rosa took bloody selfies and texted photos of his mother’s body to a friend out of state.
Authorities said he confessed to the killing in both a 911 call and a recorded interview with Hialeah police.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, Rosa will have to stay away from Ramos and his younger half-sister.
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