Florida 13-year-old stabs sleeping mother to death in front of 2-week-old sister, police say

Detectives are searching for answers after a 13-year-old boy stabbed his mother to death in their Hialeah, Florida apartment in front of his 14-day-old sister on Thursday night, police say.

Neighbors and friends told officers he was a “really good kid” who excelled at school.

“It makes no sense,” Hialeah police spokesman Eddie Rodriguez said. “We are still scratching our heads as to what brought him to do such a thing and take his mother’s life.”

The 13-year-old is facing a charge of second-degree murder as a juvenile. Investigators and state prosecutors will determine whether he will be tried as an adult for first-degree murder, which requires premeditation.

Around 11:30 p.m., the young boy called 911 and told the operator he killed his mother, Rodriguez said. When officers arrived at their home at Amelia Oaks Apartments, 211 W 79th Pl., they found her dead in front of a baby’s crib.

Irina Garcia, the 39-year-old mother, was sleeping when she was killed just feet from her 14-day-old baby who was still inside the crib, Rodriguez said. At the time of the stabbing, the two children and Garcia were the only ones in the home.

The boy’s stepfather, who also lives in the apartment and is the biological father of the infant, was in Georgia for a truck-driving job. The infant, who was not harmed, is in the care of her maternal grandmother as her father drives back to Florida to speak to detectives.

The boy did not tell detectives why he killed his mother before he was taken to Miami-Dade’s Juvenile Detention Center, Rodriguez said.

“No one really knows why he did what he did,” he said.

While being booked in, he told officers “he wanted to take his own life.” That prompted authorities to take him to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he will stay for another three days as doctors evaluate him, Rodriguez said.

The boy was an eighth-grader at iMater Middle/High Charter School, 651 W 20th St., where he was an honor roll student. Neighbors told officers that he was a “really good kid.”

He had no prior known mental health issues and police have not been called to their home before, Rodriguez said.

Detectives will spend the next few weeks trying to piece together the details — obtaining search warrants to go through electronics and speaking to those close to him, he said.

“Now there is a family that is obviously torn apart,” Rodriguez said. “A husband that doesn’t have a wife. A baby that doesn’t have a mother. A biological father that doesn’t have a son.”