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A Venezuelan man “went hunting women on the University of Georgia campus” earlier this year and ended up killing nursing student Laken Riley after a scuffle, prosecutors said Friday. I’m guilty.
Jose Ibarra, who entered the United States illegally two years ago, is charged with murder and other crimes in the February killing of Riley, which helped fuel the immigration debate during this year’s presidential campaign. Mr. Ybarra waived his right to a jury trial. That means his case will be heard and decided by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ybarra encountered Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student, while running on February 22.
“When Laken Riley refused to become a rape victim, he repeatedly bashed her in the skull with a rock,” Ross said, adding evidence showed Riley “fought for her life and dignity.” He added that it would show that.
As a result of that fight, DNA was left under Ybarra’s fingernails, Ross said. Riley called 911, but in the scramble for the phone, Ybarra’s thumbprint remained on the screen.
Forensic evidence is sufficient to prove Ybarra’s guilt, but digital and video evidence will also show that Ybarra killed Riley, prosecutors said.
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing, but said none of it proves his client killed Riley. Ta.
“The evidence in this case is very good evidence that Laken Riley was murdered. The evidence that Jose Ybarra murdered Laken Riley is circumstantial.” Evidence that someone intentionally committed a sexual assault, or that someone has committed a sexual assault, is speculative. ”
The killing added fuel to a national debate over immigration after federal authorities announced that Ybarra entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was granted stay to pursue his immigration case.
Republicans, including President-elect Donald Trump, blamed Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death. Biden mentioned Riley by name when speaking about border security in his State of the Union address weeks after the killing.
Riley’s body was found near a running track after her roommate told police she had not returned from her morning run. Police said her killing appeared to be a random attack. Ybarra was arrested the next day and is being held in the Athens-Clarke County Jail without bail.
Ybarra is charged with one count of malicious murder, three counts of felony murder, one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, interfering with emergency calls, tampering with evidence and voyeurism.
Prosecutors say that on the day of Riley’s murder, Ybarra looked into the window of an apartment in the university’s residential building, which is the basis for Tom’s voyeurism charges.
Before the trial, defense attorneys unsuccessfully tried to move the proceedings from Athens, a city of about 130,000 people about 110 miles east of Atlanta. They also wanted to treat Tom’s voyeurism charges separately and exclude some evidence and expert testimony.
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