27: Honor Roll Student Murders & Sends Selfies to His Friends | The Derek Rosa Case

Derek Rosa was just 13 years old when he brutally stabbed his mother to death in the middle of the night. In this case, I will be honest, it has always been just absolutely mind-boggling to me. I mean, first, it's shocking that a son would kill his own mother, right, at 13 years old. I mean, that's such an incredibly young age to commit such a violent crime. Yet, we do see it more times than I would care to. But then there's all of the bizarre interrogation footage that surfaced after Derek was arrested. Footage that showed this child, literally this child who didn't even know his home address, yet he could calmly explain exactly which artery had been severed. And finally, what has really left people kind of just like scratching their heads is the why behind it all. Throughout this case, the biggest question has always been why. Why would a seemingly happy teenager suddenly just snap and commit such a heinous crime against his own mother? And that is the big question today. Now, when we first covered this case at the beginning of 2024, we took a deep dive into the interrogation footage and also into Derek's very eerie 911 call. But since then, there have been some major developments. It seems like the case has finally reached a resolution. Though, honestly, it's only raised more questions. With some people now even wondering whether Derek might actually be innocent in all of this, after all, there is a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot to unpack here. So today, we are officially reopening this case. Now, as a quick reminder, in these reopened episodes, we revisit our original deep dive and then we drop in all of the updates along the way, some new thoughts, new opinions of mine that have changed since the first recording. So you will maybe notice some differences in the audio, because our audio equipment has changed over time. But the goal is to always bring you the complete story, with a fresh new lens. So that's what we're doing today. So with all of that said, we are going to reopen Derek Rosa's case. Let's get into it and brace yourself guys, because this is a wild one. I'm Annie Elise. This is 10 to life, and let's jump right in. On October 12th, 2023, just before midnight, dispatchers in Hylia, Florida received a truly bone-chilling 911 call. The caller was reporting that 39-year-old mother, Irina Garcia, a mother of two, at my dad, had been stabbed to death while sleeping. And she wasn't alone while she was sleeping. She was sleeping right next to her two-week-old daughter. Now, it's hard to say, honestly, which is crazier, that this alleged murderer was Irina's 13-year-old son, or the fact, that he was the one calling to report this, report his own crime. The audio from that 911 call is pretty chaotic at times. I'm going to be honest with you, and it can be a little bit difficult to make it out. So if you're listening to the audio version of this episode, and you want to follow along with the captions, definitely go and click on the YouTube version as well, because we do have it on screen with the captions. Hi, it's big English. I'm going to help you. Can you bring the police over here where I live? What is your address? I don't know my address. Are you by yourself with your mom? Yes, no. My baby sister's here, so she's sleeping. Thank you for your mom. Okay, where is the knife right now? I put it. Let me check. Wait. I put it on the floor inside of the. Wait, no. Where is it? I don't mind the knife. Do you call her neck? Okay. Where else did you stop? They're all done calling her neck. Based on his tone and even his word choice, from the way that Derek always said, "Mam," for example, you would almost think that he didn't understand what he had done, like he was in shock or dealing with some kind of like mental disconnect. I don't know. But obviously, Derek did know that this was an emergency situation. He wouldn't have called 911 otherwise. And I do think it's interesting that Derek wasn't quite together the entire time during this 10-minute call. Sometimes, he almost seemed a little bit rattled. He couldn't remember his home address. And again, I don't know if that's necessarily indicative of him being super shaken or if there was something going on with him. But then, after the 911 operator asked where he was, it took Derek over four minutes to come up with an answer. I honestly don't know what to make of all of that because we're talking about a 13-year-old here. Which, yes, it is very young to be stabbing somebody to death, but not so young that he wouldn't know his own address or that he would be unable to read it off of a piece of paper or a piece of mail that was in the house. So again, it makes me wonder, did Derek forget his address in the moment because he was dealing with shock after his mom's murder? Or did this mental disconnect kick in before he committed the murder? Was it part of what pushed him to commit this brutal crime? What's really going on here? I do think that it's safe to assume that Derek was particularly on edge, given some of the things that happen in other parts of this call. Hi, there's a knife in my room and there's a gun in the living room. Okay, I need you to stay away from them. Can you put them in a safe place away from where the officers can see them? Can you put them away? So what was that? Shit, I'm sorry. I thought something family just came to us out of this. What happened? Something fell from my mom's human experience. Something fell from what sir? It was, she has a handbag, you don't want her handbag fell. Okay, not a problem. I need you to put everything away. Okay, I don't have anything in your hand. Okay, but I can have my phone in my hand. You can have your phone in your hand, yes you can. Now the whole conversation was like that. Derek was all over the place and he also told the operator that he was worried about his baby sister. So the dispatcher told him not to have anything in his hands when the police came. But Derek was worried that the baby might start crying and he would have to hold her, he would have to comfort her. Then he asked about his stepdad, Frank Ramos, who worked as a truck driver. He wasn't home that night because of his job. So Derek was worried that Frank would come back to this crime scene without Derek there to explain what had happened. And the dispatcher had to reassure him that the police would handle all of it. It was like he was so concerned with all of these other things, not really concerned with the fact that he just murdered his mother. There was one topic that Derek was not willing to discuss at all. So much so that when it came up, he just completely changed the subject. Why did you do this to your mom? Can you tell me why? My stepdad's telling my mom I can hear the phone. Okay, do not pick up the phone. Just stay with me on the line, concentrate. Okay, stay with me. So you need fire extinguisher, you heard? No, I'm not, I just have a little bit of blood on my hands at night. You have blood in your hands? Yeah. And then say, "How did the police get here so fast?" Because this is a light turning emergency. So we go, we get to places fast. We're there to help you, okay? We're going to help you and your sister, okay? I'm staying here and listening to him with the door unlocked. Should I like the door? No, just leave the door locked. Just make sure you don't have anything in your hands. Just imagine you open the door. They're not in the door. Okay. So open. Stay with me on the line, do not open. Do not open until I tell you, okay? Okay, so I'm going to open this. Okay, I just want to make sure that you have nothing in your hands. I don't have my phone, so I'm going to phone down. Okay, do not put your phone down until I tell you to. I just want to make sure that you have nothing in your hands, not guns, no knives. I don't have a gun in my eyes. I put the knife in my room and then the gun is in my room. Okay, stay with me on the line, do not open until I tell you to. Okay, there's the door. Do not open the door until I tell you to, okay? Yes, they're opening it. They're opening it. They're opening the door. They move the door and they say it was unlocked. That's fine, do not open until I tell you to open the door and to make sure that you have nothing but your cell phone in your hands. No, they're not going to kill me. No, they're not going to kill you. We're here to help you. Okay, we're going to help your family. So at this point, with Derek inside and the first responders right outside, the operator was acting as sort of the go between between both of them. This way the police could talk to Derek even if they weren't faced to face with him yet. Eventually, she told Derek to go outside with his hands in the air and Derek complied the same way that he had been complying this entire time. He opened the door, stepped out onto the landing, and right away the police slapped him into handcuffs and took him into custody. Afterward, they searched Derek's apartment and it was exactly like what he had described on his phone call. They found a 12-inch-long kitchen knife. It had a purple handle and it also had a broken-off tip. And this knife was absolutely covered in blood. And I'm not talking about a couple droplets here and there or droplets on the edge. It was like if you had grabbed a knife, dipped it in a bucket of blood, and then pulled it out. That is what this knife looked like. So it was pretty clear that this was the murder weapon. Derek's mother, Irene Garcia, was there lying on the ground next to the bed, and she had been stabbed over 40 times. There were slashes on her face, her neck, her torso, her back, literally the only part of her body that had not been cut was the back of her knees. That is how brutal this crime scene was. So it's no surprise that she was pronounced dead at the scene just as soon as the medical services team arrived and were able to look at her body. Now, Irina died pretty young too. She was just 39 years old, and she and her husband had just moved into this apartment about a year before, and even though they hadn't lived there for very long, Irina made a huge impression on her neighbors. They knew her as somebody who was always quick to smile and have a friendly chat with anybody that she bumped into, just a really warm and loving person. And if you look at the photos from her during her pregnancy, you can see how excited she was to become a new mom again, and how much she already loved that baby. There are so many snapshots of her cradling her belly, her long blonde hair framing her face, she was just glowing. Honestly, as cliche as that sounds, she truly was. She looked like a literal angel. Now, speaking of the baby, her name has not been released to the public, which makes sense because she was only two weeks old at the time that her mother was murdered. And in a horrific detail, she was actually in the room when her mother was killed. She was lying in her crib. Thank God though, she was not hurt. Now, let's go back to Frank, Derek's stepfather and the baby girl's dad. Since he was still out of town for work, the authorities contacted Irina's mother, as soon as they had Derek in custody. They asked her to come and take care of the baby until they could sort out what was going on and until Frank got back in town. And in order to get a handle on exactly what went down, police sat Derek down in an interrogation room to see if he could help them sort out what was going on here, help them make sense of all of this. But they didn't get that. Instead, Derek spent about 20 minutes in questioning, and he never told the police much of anything that they didn't already know from that 911 call. In fact, his body language and the words that he used were almost a little confusing. It was just like the conversation with the dispatcher, where sometimes he came across his very calm, very collected, even when he was talking about stabbing his mother in very, very Frank and cold callous terms. But then, there were other times where Derek came across like a scared, confused little boy. And like before, he couldn't remember his own address. And he even blanked on his stepfather's name when the detectives were asking him for it. There's another example of this right at the start of the interrogation. The police had him sign a bunch of paperwork where he waived his right to a lawyer and said that he consented to be questioned. And it was clear that he didn't understand some of these forms. And the police had to go on and explain what was going on, what was happening, what these forms were, and what the purpose was. Then I read this whole paragraph. I have read this statement. I love my rights and I understand what my rights are. I am willing to make the statement and answer questions. I do not want to end lawyer at this time. I understand and know what I'm doing. No promises or threats have been made to me. No pressure or precision coercion. That is that we're forcing you to do something. Okay. I understand you're whatever you're doing. You're doing on your own voluntarily basis, making an educated decision for yourself. Okay. Okay. Keep on. Of any kind of any kind has been used against me. Okay. Now, we are investigating an incident that happened, where you called police. Okay. Before we ask you any questions, we want to make sure that you know this. And if you want a chance to explain yourself, the only way that we would be able to take your statement is if you agree to talk to us without the presence of an attorney. If you do, go ahead and sign right here. Well, it's an attorney is someone that can represent you in legal matters. Okay. Now that part, it really does have a lot of people saying kind of like, hold up here. Derek clearly did not fully grasp what was happening. He was asking questions about basic definitions. So I mean, was he really knowledgeable enough to make a decision as big as whether or not to speak with police in a murder investigation? And let's not forget, Derek was only 13 years old. So because of this, some people are arguing that he never should have been interrogated alone in the first place, and that a parent, a guardian, or at the very least, a child advocate should have been present during the interrogation. But then later, when it came time to talk about the murder itself, Derek just very calmly explained what happened. Again, he was not ruffled at all, even when the conversation became pretty disturbing. I'm going to play you guys a couple of clips from the interrogation to show you exactly what I mean. Were you wearing the same clothes you're wearing now? Yeah. There are some red stains. There's that blood. I think it is. Okay. And a little bit blood on your hands too. Okay. Where exactly did you cut her? At first, I cut her right here. Under neck is like a type of vein that goes to your neck right here on both sides. Okay. Stand here. Blood, blood, blood, blood. Do you know what that that's called? It's an artery or something, an artery? Yeah. Okay. And you purposely went for the artery? When you cut her out, I just wanted that neck, but I didn't. Okay. Was there a lot of blood after? Was there the color of blood on the floor? Were you, do you communicate with people over the phone? Were you talking or tell me what happened tonight? Tonight? Yeah. Well, around like like 10. That went a bit. Okay. My mom did to. Is that your regular time? 9. Yeah. Okay. You guys, uh, explain to me about the apartment. You have your own room? Yes. And your mom? Yes. She has her own room and your sister. She stays in the same room with her mom. And tonight, who was all there? Me and my mom in the system. Okay. So you want to sleep around 10? Yes. Okay. And then what? I woke up. You killed her. All right. Um, what type of, what type of night was it? You know, it's a big size kitchen. Is that big? Yeah. What color was the, the handle? Purple. Purple? Yes. Okay. But then they turned their focus away from the house and shifted it to the wise. And Derek, once again, basically avoided the question. Why did you stab your mom? They would have been better if I answered that. Yes. Of course. A four-minute session. Do you want to thank them for me? You know, I have a picture with them. Yes. That picture will be come. So you were about to tell me the why? Why did you, uh, clear mother? Do you know? If I had to say it now, yeah, get it off your chest. Absolutely. You know, you're familiar. Okay. At this point, you want to order? Now, I think that this is really interesting because this was the third time that somebody asked Derek why he did it, why he murdered his mother. And it's the third time that he just completely sidestepped the question. He wasn't hiding the fact that he did it. He wasn't hiding the fact that he murdered her at all. But he kept dodging the question of why? This was a kid who turned himself in. He voluntarily in detail talked about exactly how he stabbed his mother to death. He got graphic. That was all worth sharing, but now his motives weren't worth sharing. What was going on here? It's so weird and truly confusing. And it really makes me think that whatever he was thinking and for whatever reason he did do it, there's got to be some story there. So from there, they decided the only thing they could do was the next best thing. And that was to take a look at his history instead. Because, you know, maybe something from his past could explain why he'd not only kill his mother, but why he did so in such a gruesome and violent and shocking way. But when they started digging, instead of getting the resolution and the answers that they were hoping for, everything they learned about his background just sort of confused them even more. Because Derek didn't come across like a murderer at all. He was a good kid. He didn't have a criminal record or any kind of history of getting into trouble at all. He was also very, very smart, which you might not guess from how much he struggled to even remember his basic information, like his home address, or what an attorney was. But Derek always got A's, always got B's in school, and in fact, he was an honors student. He also always helped out around his house, and he always got along with his mom until he didn't. His neighbors regularly saw him helping his mom carry groceries into the apartment after trips to the store. They never overheard any fighting, or even got the impression that there was any real tension in the family either. And in fact, one neighbor gave a statement to the press, which it was in Spanish, but when you translate it to English, she said, "I was shocked. Just shocked by the news. I don't know what could have happened." There also have never been any sort of domestic disturbance calls to his apartment. No sign at the Derek's mother or stepfather were abusive, or that he had gotten into any sort of violent arguments with them in the past. I mean, I could go on, guys, but you get it. There was nothing whatsoever in Derek's background or history that indicated that he was the sort of person who could commit a murder, or would have a motive to commit a murder. It was like this stabbing just came out of nowhere. Derek's biological father, Jose, completely agreed when he was interviewed. He couldn't possibly fathom how or why Derek would do this. The lead detective on the case would later testify to the same thing, that everyone who knew Derek described him as intelligent, loving, even super close with his mom. Can you tell us a little bit about the questions that you asked Jose was inside of in the recording? I asked him, you know, if he had any psychological issues that he's been treated for, which he said no, as far as what type of a student he is, what type of a person he is. He said that being very intellectual, family oriented, got a long great with the victim. You know, he would call the victim, or the victim would call him every 15 minutes or so. And he was intellectual and had no learning disabilities whatsoever, or I think he said that he was a nice student. So if Derek and Arena were so close, and if he didn't show any other warning signs, then what else was really going on here? I mean, is it possible that Derek had some sort of mental health episode and just snapped, into the lead detective, the answer to that was no. Derek had no history of mental health issues whatsoever, none at all. Based on your perception, was it your understanding that Derek Russell was generally speaking a normal average young man who performs fairly well in school? Yes. But just to be totally sure, Derek was sent for a full mental health assessment. So two different doctors talked to Derek, and afterward, they came back with a very different possible diagnosis, one who actually worked for the prison, said that Derek might have ADHD, while a different doctor thought that Derek was on the autism spectrum. Now, talking just in terms of statistics, there isn't a clear link between autism and violent crime. Some researchers think that people on the spectrum are actually less likely to be violent, but there really isn't enough research out there to say anything for sure. ADHD, however, can be a factor in murders, like the one that Derek committed. So with ADHD, particularly if it isn't diagnosed or being managed well, can have difficulty resisting their impulses or resisting those urges, so maybe Derek just snapped. Like he just snapped in the moment and stabbed his mother after an argument. This possible diagnosis might help explain a little bit how something like that could happen in somebody who otherwise doesn't seem especially violent or doesn't have a background that would indicate it would happen. But I also don't want to make it sound like having ADHD automatically makes somebody a murderer or dangerous to be around, certainly not. If that is a factor, and again, I'm not sure if it even is, it's just one piece of an even bigger puzzle which we're not still seeing a whole picture here yet. Plus, I don't know which therapist in all of this, which doctor was right. If Derek had ADHD or autism or both, or if there was something else going on and both of them were wrong. So at this point, investigators really had to go back to the drawing board. They had conflicting opinions about Derek's mental health condition, and they had him admitting to the murders but not really saying anything about why. So what they decided to do was to get a better idea of what actually happened that night. They pulled footage from the cameras around the apartment. And I will say, there was a ring camera as well at the apartment's front door, and this camera captured Derek several times that night. Both of these clips were from a few hours before the stabbing. And the footage showed Irene sitting in a chair by the front door with her new two-week-old little baby girl, Derek opened the door, went outside, and as he went out, he had an exchange with his mother. The exchange was in Spanish, so I'm going to read a translation of their conversation for you now. Irene said, "Don't run." And then Derek sort of paused and looked back into the house at her, and he replied, "Why do you always tell me don't run?" And okay fine, maybe it wasn't the friendliest exchange, I don't know, but nothing here sounds high stakes enough that would warrant him murdering his mother later that night, certainly not. Then the ring camera filmed him again. This was when he came back home a little while later. But it doesn't look like too much time had passed because Irene was still sitting in the same spot. Now this was the last time the front door opened, and it was the last time the ring camera was activated, until close to midnight when the police arrived. But even so, we don't need to see any more ring camera footage to know what happened next right. Because later that evening, Irene went into her bedroom, which also functioned as a nursery. Her bed was next to the crib, and Irene had the newborn baby in her arms. The baby monitor turned on, and then at around 10.23pm, it filmed Irene lying in bed, cuddling with her daughter. But at some point after that, she put the little girl in her crib, and then went over and fell asleep. Then, 37 minutes after that, a figure came into the room. And again, the baby monitor captured everything. The shadowy figure stood over Irene as she lay asleep, just completely defenseless. And then while she was still asleep, he stabbed her. He stabbed her over 40 times. It was just like what he said in his confession. At one point, she woke up and began screaming. But even this didn't stop Derek or slow him down at any point. He just kept stabbing her until she was dead. And we also know what Derek did next, what he did after he murdered his mom. As he began documenting the entire crime on his own, first he took photos of his mom's body, and then he took a selfie of himself with bloody hands. He was sticking his tongue out and flashing the rock on or the devil horn sign with his hands, with his red, just sticky, bloody covered fingers. I mean, it is truly haunting and disgusting to think about. It's also not something that you would expect from that scared sounding little boy who called 911 and just sounded so calm. I don't know. It's like Derek's personality changed every couple of minutes over the course of the night. One minute he was sad, he was terrified, then he was taking these pictures, where he was basically showing off, almost proud that he just murdered his mother. I don't know which of these moves was supposed to be the quote unquote real Derek, but in either event, pretty disturbing. And one thing I do find interesting is that after Derek snapped all of those photos, he sent three of them to a friend. Typically, two photos of his mom's body and that selfie that he took. He fired them off on his phone to his friend. So again, even with this huge, long, long trail of digital information showing basically every single beat of the crime, there was no real clarity around why Derek did it. He wasn't fighting with his mom before he stabbed her. She was asleep. She was asleep for the night. He also didn't seem to be in any kind of danger where he might have thought that he needed to defend himself for some reason. And even though it does sound like he was confused, and not all there on the night of the murder, the psychiatrist didn't seem to think that there was a clear cut psychological explanation either. At best, you might guess that he was feeling extra impulsive thanks to the undiagnosed ADHD, but we know that that's not an explanation on its own. It's all just very, very bizarre in. But I do think that it is safe to assume that the murder was premeditated. I don't think that Derek just woke up with this sudden urge to stab his mother to death, stab her over 40 times. And the reason that I say that is because I'm basing that off of something that an investigating police officer said during one of Derek's hearings after his arrest. So on October 12th at 6 p.m., he did make searches on Google. He typed in the word, the carotid artery image diagram. What is the best place to stab someone? Is a small knife good for killing? Now for a little context, those searches were all from the day of the murder. And like he said, all of them were around 6 p.m. But Derek didn't actually stab his mother until 11 p.m. So that means that he was planning this for at least 5 hours in advance. And during those same hearings, one other piece of information came out that might maybe explain Derek's motives a little bit better. Apparently, Derek told the police that while he was stabbing his mother, he used a homophobic slur against her. In our last deep dive, I was thinking that maybe Derek used that slur towards Irina because she was bisexual or interested in women. That maybe he disapproved of that, and that somehow that factored into his motive. But since then, I've learned that when that word is used toward women, it usually has absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation at all. They actually translate more closely to like calling them a bitch or a coward. Which honestly. That just kind of sends my mind spinning a little bit because why would he call his mom a coward? Was there something happening behind the scenes? Something Derek felt that she wasn't doing enough to protect him from? Could that be a clue as to the real motive in all of this? Or, I don't know, am I just reading too much into it? And he was just blurting out whatever swear word came to his mind in that moment without it having any sort of deeper meaning at all. But with what the police did know, which was basically everything except his motive, they decided to charge him as an adult for first degree murder. And because Derek was being treated as an adult, that meant that he had to be transferred from the juvenile facility where he was being held for those first two weeks after his arrest, over to an adult facility. To hear it from Derek's attorney and the mental health professionals that they hired, Derek thought about suicide a lot after he was admitted into the adult facility. But other prison officials actually tried to make it sound like he was doing well there. When Derek's lawyer is asked for a hearing to talk about moving him back to Juvie, one prison official came out to the courtroom and said that Derek was flourishing. So then, after no fewer than six weeks of debates in the courtroom, the judge did end up deciding that Derek was going to have to stay in the adult facility. Metro West, he's going to have to stay there until his murder trial begins. In other words, Derek's defense team lost, at least in their efforts to get him back into a youth facility. And that was pretty surprising, considering who Derek's head lawyer was, because he was being represented by none other than Jose Bias. As you may know, Jose Bias' client list is like a who's who of high profile celebrity defendants. He worked with Harvey Weinstein, he worked with Aaron Hernandez, he also most famously, in my opinion, worked for Casey Anthony, and Bias wasn't just working Derek's case. He was working on it pro bono, in other words, for free. So that made people think that he really believed Derek's story. And it of course led many people to also wonder, is there something here that we're not seeing? Something that's being missed, some piece of evidence that could actually point to Derek being innocent? One theory that started circulating was that someone else killed arena and then forced Derek to take the blame. And as you can imagine, it did not take long for the rumors about who that someone else could be, took flight. Some people suspected the friend that Derek had texted photos of the crime to. Others took it a step further and claimed that Derek's biological father might have hated his ex-wife enough to somehow coerce his own son into killing her. But I will say it became clear pretty quickly that those theories were honestly completely just off the wall, and there was never any sort of evidence tying either one of them to the murder. Derek's defense team, though, did believe that there was somebody else. And they pointed the finger right at Derek's stepfather, Frank Ramos. According to the defense, Frank had actually written Facebook messages describing parts of the crime that he wouldn't have known about unless he was in the apartment that night. And I'm talking really big descriptions, things like arena screaming for help, things like her fighting back. And these were details that at the time had not even been released publicly. So the defense believed in this theory so strongly. I mean, strongly enough that they even filed emotion demanding Frank to turn over his Facebook messages. And in addition to turning over those Facebook messages, also his work schedule. Basically, challenging his alibi that he was in Georgia for work at the time of the murder. In their filing, the defense wrote, quote, "The stepfather having such specific details of the incident while at the same time claiming that he did not witness the incident raises the possibility that he was, in fact, present during the incident. Having that information before there was a single police report finalized is extremely concerning." And as you can imagine, that filing, it just kicked the rumor mill online straight into overdrive. Some people even pointed out that Frank seemed to move on romantically to a new partner pretty quickly after arena's death, which that of course only added fuel to all of the speculation about him. Now you might be thinking, "Okay, wait a second, Annie, how does the defense's theory make any sense if we have baby monitor footage of Derek standing over his mother with a knife?" Well, according to the defense, that image doesn't actually show Derek at all. They argue that the person seen on that baby monitor is heavy set, wearing a short-sleeved light-colored shirt while Derek is slim and was wearing a long-sleeved navy blue shirt. Basically, they were saying that the video showed somebody else entirely killing arena, and that somebody had coerced Derek into falsely confessing. But the prosecution, I mean, they weren't having any of that. They fired back saying, "Look, there is absolutely no credible evidence linking anyone other than Derek to this crime." That includes Frank. In fact, the evidence that they did have showed that Frank was indeed in Georgia at the time of the murder, just like he said he was. The prosecution also filed a motion of their own during all of this, one where they asked the court to allow evidence from Derek's internet history to be shown at trial. Because according to prosecutors, on the day of the murder, Derek had shared a very graphic video of someone taking their own life. He shared this with a friend and he even laughed about it and described it as hilarious. The prosecution argued that this demonstrated Derek's unhealthy fascination with blood, death, gore, and that it showed that he enjoyed violent imagery. So to reinforce that point, they also brought up Derek's obsession with the horror franchise Friday the 13th, and how he had planned to dress as Jason for Halloween. Which I have to say, I understand the argument with that. But also, I think somebody who has a fascination with horror or true crime, for that matter, any of us could then in the prosecution's eyes be capable of murder. And I don't think that those two things necessarily go together. That's just my opinion. So then in November of 2025, we were hit with another shocking update in this case. Remember, a huge reason why Derek was getting so much attention from the public was because he was being represented by Jose Baez. But then suddenly, Baez completely withdrew from the case entirely. And in a social media post that he put up, he said that despite having already spent over $1 million of his own money on Derek's defense, he was throwing in the towel. He said that the judge was placing impossible demands on the defense team and that he just couldn't do it anymore. Which honestly, I have to say that surprised me. It truly did because he is no stranger to difficult judges or high-profile, high-pressure cases. I mean, if there's one thing we know about him, it's that he is not afraid of a challenge, no matter how guilty his client may be. So for him to walk away from this, it kind of made me wonder if he withdrew not because he didn't like the judges' demands, but because he realized that Derek didn't have a shot. But Derek's new lawyers ended up saying the exact same thing about the judge, the same thing that Jose did. In fact, in late 2025, they filed two separate motions demanding that the judge be removed from the case, saying that he was hostile, he was biased against Derek. However, both motions ultimately were denied. Now at that point, the defense shifted their strategy. If they couldn't get the judge removed, the next best option was to get all the evidence against Derek removed. So they filed a motion to get several key pieces of evidence out, including Irina's autopsy photos, Derek's interrogation footage, and even parts of the 911 call, they wanted all of that thrown out before the trial. It was utterances, and he made statements that perhaps we can overcome a legal objection. However, anything else relating to his baby sister in number is highly judicial and inflammatory, and it's really irrelevant. Any other statements that the operator made would also be objectionable. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, that is acceptable in what fashion, man. As I said, because they led to inflammatory information that has no relevance in this case, for example, testimony, or not testimony, about him answering about a 14-week, 14-day-old child in that room has nothing to do with the investigation. As for the interrogation footage specifically, the defense argued that Derek wasn't able to understand his right to remain silent, or his right to an attorney. They said that he was simply too young, too distressed, too overwhelmed to make an informed legal decision at the time that he was questioned. Once again, though, the judge ruled against the defense. He denied the motion, and he allowed all of that evidence to be admitted at Derek's trial. By this point, all of the legal drama was really piling up. All that evidence was going to be allowed into the trial, but everyone was still waiting to see whether the defense would be granted access to all of the additional information related to Frank. The defense had also hinted at the possibility that DNA belonging to someone other than Derek might be found on the knife that was used to kill Irene, but they said that they were still waiting on the final lab results. And then, just days before all of that waiting was finally set to end, and Derek's trial was set to begin, everything changed. In a move that stunned just about everyone, Derek's defense team, the same team that had been loudly proclaiming his innocence and shifting the blame onto Frank, they announced that Derek had accepted a plea deal. On January 16th of 2026, Derek, who is now 15 years old, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The second-degree murder of his own mother. Now, you were indignant by a grand jury for first remodeled. The state and your lawyers have worked out on a relationship where your key here today will be to the charge of second-degree murder. And they have proposed that they're going to ask me if you'll be going through to that charge to send to the Chiefs of 25 years in the Florida State Prison. With all credit for time serving, that will be followed by 20 years of probation. Do you understand this week? The 25 followed by 10 and 10? Yes, sir. Okay. Has anybody promised you that something different than that was going to happen if you pledge it? No, you're not. Is anybody forcing you, threatening you, or making you, after this week against your work? No. Do you wish you enter a key and do a key to the charge of murder and second-degree with 11? Yes, sir. Thank you. At Derrick's sentencing, several of Irina's family members delivered victim impact statements, including an absolutely devastating statement from Irina's father that was read in court by the prosecutor. Derrick was a child loved by the whole family. There's no way to describe it for her, for Irina, for some is everything, big or each other. I have deeply affected by what happened. I've suffered two heart attacks and now very diligent health. However, I have been following the case with Frank who keeps me informed and allows me to see my granddaughter, which I will be eternally grateful for because I know he loves my granddaughter very much. And she very well cared for it in good hands. That is me peace of mind. I earnestly ask the American justice system to be justice for my daughter and to finally resolve this case and not prolong this process any further. My daughter did not deserve to die in such a horrific crime, made whoever's responsible paid further actions so that she can rest in peace. Then it was Derrick's chance to speak, his moment to explain himself, to finally tell the court and everyone else for that matter why this all happened. And once again, Derrick said almost nothing. He was struggling to get a single word out and he had no explanation, no motive, no nothing. And Derrick, you may have rights to whom follow the allocute. You can't have the right to say anything you want to say at this point if you have anything you wish to say. Here to us. After the plea, Derrick's lawyer put out a statement explaining that Derrick accepted the deal not because he was guilty, but because it was the only way to get him out of the adult jail facility he was in and into a safer environment. Because under the terms of the plea agreement, Derrick would be set to be transferred to a youthful offender facility until he turns 21 years old, then sent back to the adult prison for the rest of his sentence. But I'll be honest, I don't know that I completely buy that explanation. I mean, in my opinion, it looks more like the defense was running out of options a little bit. Their star attorney had withdrawn from the case. They couldn't get the judge removed. They couldn't get the evidence thrown out. They had thrown all these things to the wall, hoping it would stick and nothing did. So the truth is, too, like at the end of the day, the evidence seemed overwhelmingly stacked in favor of Derrick's guilt. So to me, it seems like the defense just wanted to cut their losses and accept a deal. But here's the thing. Through all of this, the biggest question of all is completely still unanswered. We still don't know why Derrick did this. And now that he's been sentenced, we've likely gotten all of the answers that we're ever going to get in this case. Yet somehow, it still feels like we're not any closer to understanding what actually happened that night. On one hand, the crime itself was so brutal, so intense and so personal, Derrick ignored the baby entirely, which thanked God, but then targeted his mother, only his mother. And 46 stab wounds, I mean, to me, that suggests extreme anger, extreme resentment, and emotional turmoil that is directed at one specific person. There must be a reason for that, or something that happened deep inside of him that, you know, made him want to do this. But yet, just minutes later, after stabbing his own mother 46 times, he just calmly called 911 and turned himself in. He never even tried to hide what he did. He gave a full confession, and he described the murder in graphic detail. But then when it came to motive, he just shut down completely, not once, but every single time he was asked. Now I will say that I agree that Derrick wasn't really in a state of mind to be interrogated, and I do wish that he had been allowed to have his father or his grandmother or a child advocate in the room with him, given just how young he was. But still, why did he freeze up specifically when asked why? Is it because there is no answer? There is no why he was truly just obsessed with blood, gore, and death, so there's no explanation? I don't know, because his reaction, it tells me that there is something there, some reason that maybe he's embarrassed about, or is afraid to say, or maybe just can't find the words for. Plus, there's the fact that so many of the obvious explanations, I mean, abuse in the home, a mental health crisis, ongoing conflict with his mother, those have already been ruled out. So with all of the logical motives out of the question, and Derrick still holding something back, I can understand why people have wondered whether someone else might have been involved in this, someone that maybe Derrick is covering for. But I also will be honest, at the same time, I don't think that the evidence supports that theory. Everything we know suggests that his stepfather really was out of state at the time. And as for the claims that Frank moved on too quickly, I mean, that whole thing is based on photos that were later revealed to have been taken years before he even met arena. So by all accounts, Frank, I mean, he seems totally innocent. He's also been described as a very devoted father to the baby girl that arena left behind. He seems like someone simply just trying to move forward after an unimaginable loss. So this is one of those cases where even with a ton of updates since our last deep dive, we still are left with so many of the same questions that we started with. And sometimes there aren't any clean explanations or, you know, satisfying endings or resolutions to where you feel like you understand or have a better understanding. And I feel like this is definitely one of those cases. What I do know is that no matter how you look at this case, this story is absolutely heartbreaking. A young mother, only 39 years old, who had just given birth two weeks earlier to her baby girl, who was looking forward to this lifetime of raising her children, was violently murdered by her own child. Two-week-old baby is now left without her mother and a 13-year-old boy sitting in a jail cell, well, now 15 years old. There really are no winners here. And hardly any real answers. So I'd really love to hear what you think about this case. Do you see where the defense was going with the stepfather theory? Or do you believe that this was entirely Derek? And if it was, why? What do you think could have driven him to do something like this? Something so callous, so brutal, so personal? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section on YouTube or the Q&A section on Spotify. And before you go, don't forget to hit the subscribe button on YouTube or the follow button if you're listening to this on your podcast app. I'm Annie Elise, and as always, thank you for tuning in to another episode of "Ten to Life" until the next one. Stay safe. Bye.