That Chapter Podcast’s Derek Rosa Episode: When the Suspect Calls the Police on Himself
Around 11:30 p.m. on October 12, 2023, a 13-year-old boy in Hialeah, Florida, picked up his phone and dialed 911. “I stabbed my mother,” Derek Rosa told the dispatcher — calmly, without urgency. Then, almost as an afterthought, he asked whether sending photos of the body to a friend was a bad idea. That Chapter Podcast’s 31-minute episode retells the case that call set in motion.
If you know That Chapter, you know the format: host Mike Oh takes a case, walks it chronologically, and lets the documented facts carry the weight. This episode opens with the setting — Hialeah, the family apartment, the ordinary evening — before moving to the chapter the video itself flags early: the 911 call, barely two minutes in. From there it follows the investigation, the evidence, and the long road to a courtroom.
The case itself is one of the most disturbing juvenile cases in recent Florida history. Rosa waited until his mother, 39-year-old Irina Garcia, had fallen asleep — his 14-day-old sister asleep in a crib nearby, unharmed — then attacked her with a kitchen knife. He later confessed in a recorded police interrogation, and the 911 recording was eventually played in court. In January 2026, days before trial, Rosa pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a weapon and was sentenced to 25 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation.
At a Glance
| Video | “The Case of Derek Rosa” |
|---|---|
| Channel | That Chapter Podcast |
| Published | February 20, 2026 |
| Length | ~31 minutes |
| Views | 11.4K |
| Subject | The October 2023 killing of Irina Garcia in Hialeah, Florida; the 911 call and the plea deal |
What the Video Covers
The episode opens with context: Hialeah, the apartment, the family — a 13-year-old honor student, his 39-year-old mother Irina Garcia, and a newborn daughter just two weeks old. Then it moves to the centerpiece of the case, the 911 call: Rosa telling the dispatcher he had stabbed his mother, and mentioning — flatly — that he had taken pictures and told a friend about it.
From there, the video walks through the investigation and the evidence: the baby monitor footage, the photos Rosa sent over social media, his eerily calm demeanor when officers arrived and during his recorded police interrogation, and the disturbing pre-crime internet searches prosecutors later surfaced — including queries about where to stab someone and whether a knife can cut through bone. The episode also covers what investigators said about Rosa’s fixation on violent horror imagery, including the character Jason Voorhees.
The final arc is the legal outcome. Rosa was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and held without bond. The video follows the case through to its resolution: days before a January 2026 trial was set to begin, Rosa accepted a plea deal — guilty to second-degree murder with a weapon — and was sentenced to 25 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation. The episode lands where the real case did: a devastated family, a community still processing it, and a 15-year-old beginning a sentence that will run into 2048.
Strengths
The structure does the heavy lifting. This is the great advantage of Mike Oh’s chronological format — the case unfolds in order, each fact landing on top of the last. The 911 call, placed early in the episode, casts a long shadow over everything that follows, and the video is smart enough not to rush past it.
The victim stays visible. Cases with a shocking perpetrator can lose sight of the person who was killed. This episode keeps returning to Irina Garcia — a 39-year-old mother of a 13-year-old and a two-week-old baby — and to the family members still living with what happened. That grounding keeps the episode from sliding into spectacle.
A complete arc, including the ending. Many true crime episodes trail off before the legal resolution. Because this video was published after the January 2026 sentencing, it covers the full story — from the night of the killing to the plea deal and the 25-year sentence. You finish the episode knowing how it ended, not just how it started.
Weaknesses
The format is familiar. If you watch That Chapter regularly, the structure here will feel well-worn: setting, crime, investigation, outcome. The case itself is extraordinary, but the presentation follows the channel’s standard template — there are no surprises in how it’s assembled.
Thin on the “why.” The episode documents what Rosa did and what happened afterward, but the question that haunts this case — how a 13-year-old honor student with no prior mental health history arrived at that night — gets limited exploration. Viewers looking for deeper psychology will need to look elsewhere.
A difficult case to watch, by design. This is not a criticism of the episode so much as a warning: the core of the story is a child killing his mother, and no amount of calm narration softens that. The episode is respectful, but some viewers will find the subject matter itself too heavy regardless of presentation.
Who Should Watch
- That Chapter regulars — a solid entry in Mike Oh’s catalog, with the channel’s usual steady pacing.
- Juvenile-justice watchers — the charging-as-an-adult decision and the plea deal make this a case with real legal substance.
- 911-call and interrogation viewers — the calm confession call is the episode’s unforgettable centerpiece.
- True crime completists — a rare case covered start to finish, including the final sentence.
7/10
A steady, well-structured retelling of an exceptionally heavy case — the 911 call anchors the episode, the victim stays at the center, and the full legal arc is covered. Familiar in format and light on the deeper “why,” but a strong, respectful entry in That Chapter’s catalog.
Source: That Chapter Podcast on YouTube (“The Case of Derek Rosa,” published February 20, 2026); case background via Oxygen and contemporary Florida reporting on the 2023 Hialeah case.