A Miami judge has ruled that a taped confession made by Derek Rosa, the Hialeah teenager accused of brutally stabbing his mother to death in 2023, can be used at his trial when it starts at the end of the month.
Attorneys for 15-year-old Rosa had asked the court to suppress his confession, arguing that he didn’t fully understand his right to remain silent when he spoke with investigators after the incident.
CBS News Miami’s Chelsea Jones was in court when the motion was denied on Tuesday afternoon.
Emotions run high before motion was denied
Emotions were running high inside the courtroom before the motion was denied. Attorneys for Rosa had accused the prosecution of lying while in court while objecting to a characterization of a 911 call that was used. The 911 call is one of the two confessions that the defense had hoped to have suppressed.
His defense had argued that he was too young to understand his rights, but a state’s attorney had said that a 13-year-old, which is how old Rosa was at the time of the crime, could waive their rights.
The state had argued that Rosa’s state of mind during the interview showed that he knew what he was doing when he nodded “yes” when asked if he killed his mother by detectives.
The state also argued that the entire Miranda warning was read to Rosa and said that Rosa acknowledged that he understood each of the rights as they were being read to him.
Rosa’s attorney tried to raise whether he was under duress and had suicidal thoughts, and said Rosa was on medication and said it was relevant.
But soon after the prosecution started its arguments, the defense objected and said the prosecution was “lying” about a characterization during a 911 call.
The judge didn’t like that.
“I beg your pardon?” judge says
“He does not say ‘What do I do to not be killed?’ It is inaccurate. It’s a lie. That’s not what he says,” Attorney Dayliset Rielo said.
“I beg your pardon,” the judge replied. “Can you repeat that last part?”
“That is not what he says, your honor,” she replied. “I will submit that the call speaks for itself.”
“Yes. That part was fine,” the judge said. “There was something else I thought I heard.”
“It’s inaccurate,” Dayliset interrupted.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” he said. “About the characterization of what an attorney says. It’s not going to happen here.”
In court on Tuesday the judge also denied a motion to delay the start of the trial, so it’s still set to begin at the end of January.
