A Georgia Superior Court judge heard opening statements from attorneys on Friday in an ongoing bench trial over an illegal immigrant alleged to have killed Athens, Georgia, nursing student Laken Riley.
Suspect Jose Ibarra, from Venezuela, was 26 when he entered the country 18 months before the February 2024 killing of the 22-year-old at Augusta University.
He waived his right to a jury trial on Tuesday, which led to the bench trial before Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard on Friday.
Special prosecutor Sheila Ross presented the argument that the suspect hit Riley in the head and strangled her with the intent of sexual assault. Ross has asked for Ibarra to be sentenced to life without parole.
“And in his hunt, he encountered 22-year-old Laken Riley on her morning jog, and when Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock, repeatedly,” she said. “That is what this case is all about.”
She said the evidence will show that Riley “fought for her life,” and in that fight she caused the suspect to leave forensic evidence behind.
“She also marked her killer for the entire world to see,” Ross said. “The forensic evidence that he left behind in this fight is his DNA and only his DNA underneath Laken’s right fingernails.”
She added that the suspect also left behind his thumbprint on Riley’s phone, which was thrown from the crime scene.
Riley disappeared after that morning, which led to a search during which her body was discovered along her route at 1 p.m. on Feb. 22.
Campus video led security to Ibarra, who lived in an apartment complex at the college.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911, and concealing a death.
In addition, the charge of concealing the death of another involved the suspect’s “dragging the victim to a secluded area.”
Court records reported that the Athens-Clarke County Police Department was able to locate the suspect through surveillance camera footage in February 2024.
It was eventually discovered after a search of his apartment and examination of his identification that he had entered the country illegally near Eagle Pass, Texas, and was apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Ibarra eventually migrated to Athens, where he “had frequent contact with local law enforcement officers” through DUI and shoplifting arrests, according to court records.
He was also known to be affiliated with the Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang, which ”has been involved in recent violent confrontations with law enforcement and civilian victims in New York and elsewhere throughout the United States,” court records reported.
Tren de Aragua also has a significant presence in Texas, Illinois, Florida, and Georgia.
Riley’s death highlights the divide between Democrat and Republican lawmakers over immigration laws.
President-elect Donald Trump said his pick for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan—to whom he referred as the “Border Czar”—will “be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin.”
