Sentencing on Friday for Miami’s Facebook killer

When South Miami’s Derek Medina shot and killed his unarmed wife, he posted a photo of her body on Facebook with a prediction he was “going to prison or death sentence.”

Medina will soon learn exactly how long he’ll be behind bars.

The 33-year-old former security supervisor – who unsuccessfully argued self-defense at trial – faces up to life in prison when is sentenced on Friday for second-degree murder with a firearm.

Jurors in November convicted Medina for the notorious August 2013 slaying of Jennifer Alfonso, 26, after a bitter argument inside the kitchen of their South Miami town home.

Prosecutors said Medina gunned down Alfonso in cold blood. The photo Medina posted on Facebook showed Alfonso, a Denny’s waitress, wearing all black and pink socks, on her knees, twisted backward in a bloody heap. The images stayed online for hours before the site took them down.

At trial, defense lawyers cast Medina as a spouse battered by an abusive wife who called him the “woman” in their tumultuous relationship. They claimed Alfonso had a kitchen knife in her hand, even though Medina himself told police he had disarmed her of the blade – which she pulled only when he approached wielding his .38-caliber pistol.

Medina also told police that he fired only after Alfonso “kept on punching me like crazy” near his temple or neck.

Friday’s sentencing is before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny.

This story was originally published February 5, 2016 at 7:42 AM with the headline "Sentencing on Friday for Miami’s Facebook killer."