A Venezuelan man has been found guilty of murder in the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. The incident fueled a national debate over immigration during this year’s presidential election.
Jose Antonio Ybarra, charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s February death, was found guilty Wednesday by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard. Ybarra, 26, waived his right to a jury trial, leaving Haggard alone to hear and decide the case.
Haggard found Ybarra guilty of all 10 charges against him. Three counts of felony murder. One count each of kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to commit rape, aggravated assault, interfering with emergency calls, tampering with evidence, and peeping on Tom.
After reading the verdict, the judge said he was ready to proceed with sentencing immediately, but prosecutors asked for a stay. The penalty for a murder conviction in Georgia is life in prison without parole.
Riley’s family and friends tearfully remembered her and asked the judge to sentence Ybarra to the maximum sentence. His mother called him a “monster” and his father called him a “really bad person.”
Mr. Ibarra did not respond when an interpreter relayed their words to him.
Riley’s parents, roommates and other friends and family cried as the verdict was read. Ibarra did not visibly react.
Before announcing his decision, the judge said he wrote down two things the lawyers said on his legal pad while listening to closing arguments. He said prosecutor Sheila Ross described the evidence as “overwhelming and strong” and defense attorney Caitlin Beck reminded him that “we need to put our emotions aside” when making a decision. Mentioned.
Riley’s killing sparked a national debate over immigration when federal authorities announced that Ybarra entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was allowed to remain in the country while pursuing his immigration case. Anointed with oil. However, Ibarra’s immigration status was not mentioned in the trial.
Ross told the judge during the adjournment that “Laken Riley himself gave us all the evidence we needed” to convict Ybarra on all charges. She added that the physical evidence is sufficient and supported by forensic, digital and video evidence and “can untie a very strong knot that this defendant cannot break out of.” There’s no escape for him. ”
Evidence shows that Ms. Ybarra killed Riley “because she wouldn’t let him rape her.”
Ross said Ybarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails, and her DNA and Ybarra’s were also found on a jacket police found in a trash can at the apartment complex. Security camera footage showed the man throwing the jacket away, and his brother and another roommate identified him as Ibarra.
Ross said Riley was wearing “tight running clothes that were designed to prevent movement.” When Ross’ body was found, the waistband of her running tights was pulled down and her jacket, shirt, and sports bra were pulled up, indicating that her clothes had been removed during an attempted sexual assault, rather than being dragged. said Ross.
Surveillance video shows a man wearing the same clothes as the one seen in a cellphone selfie Ibarra took earlier that morning standing outside the female graduate student’s apartment. Ta. The student told police that while she was taking a shower, someone tried to break into her front door and looked through the window.
Mr. Ybarra was “on the prowl, hunting women,” and when he could no longer enter the apartment, he turned to the running track in search of his victim, Mr. Ross said.
Defense attorney Caitlin Beck told the judge the evidence was circumstantial and did not conclusively prove Ybarra’s guilt.
“The evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt because there are multiple interpretations,” she said.
Beck tried to call into question the DNA testing methods used to test some of the evidence. She noted that when the fingerprints found on Riley’s cell phone were entered into a database, Ybarra did not come back as a match, and experts visually matched the fingerprints.
He said investigators did not verify some of the evidence they collected, leading to “suspicions based on what was verified and what was not verified.”
During witness examination and during Beck’s closing argument, defense attorneys attempted to cast doubt on Jose Ibarra’s guilt by suggesting that Jose Ibarra’s brother Diego could not be excluded as a suspect.
The trial began Friday, with prosecutors calling more than a dozen law enforcement officers, Riley’s roommate and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ybarra. The defense called a police officer, a jogger and one of Ybarra’s neighbors on Tuesday and rested the case Wednesday morning.
Ross told the judge that Ybarra was running on the University of Georgia campus on February 22 when he encountered Riley and killed him during a scuffle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University’s College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 110 miles east of Atlanta.
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening statement that Riley’s death was a tragedy and that the evidence in the case was graphic and disturbing. But he said there was not enough evidence to prove his client killed Riley.
Riley’s parents, roommates, and other friends and family packed the courtroom throughout the trial.
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