(DailyChive.com) – Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan immigrant, is facing serious charges related to the tragic death of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Augusta University. Ibarra, who was in the country illegally, is accused of attacking and killing Riley while she was out for a jog on the University of Georgia’s Athens campus on February 22. He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, where his defense will argue that certain key pieces of evidence, including cellphone data and DNA, should not be allowed in his upcoming trial.
Ibarra’s defense team claims that the cellphone data was gathered unlawfully by the police. They also question the DNA results from Riley’s autopsy, arguing that while the DNA doesn’t eliminate Ibarra as a suspect, it also doesn’t exclude another individual tied to the case. The court hearing will determine whether this evidence will be admitted in Ibarra’s trial, which is set to start on November 18 in Athens-Clarke County, Georgia.
In May, a grand jury in Georgia indicted Ibarra on a range of charges, including malice murder, kidnapping with injury, attempted rape, aggravated battery, and tampering with evidence. There’s also a “peeping Tom” charge from the same day as Riley’s murder. Prosecutors say that on the morning of February 22, Ibarra allegedly looked through a window at a university staff member’s residence nearby, just before Riley’s murder took place.
Ibarra’s lawyers tried to get the “peeping Tom” charge removed, but prosecutors argued that both incidents are closely connected. They explained in court filings that these events happened within 300 yards of each other on the same morning, indicating a possible pattern of behavior.
Authorities say Ibarra lived with his brothers in an apartment complex near the campus trail where Riley was found. Police suggest Riley’s death might have been a “crime of opportunity,” given that Ibarra’s apartment was only a short walk from where she was killed.
Ibarra entered the United States illegally in September 2022, crossing the border through El Paso, Texas, before being released into the country on parole. His older brother, Diego, faces separate charges of green card fraud and allegedly has connections to a gang known as Tren de Aragua.
Riley’s death has become part of a broader debate over immigration policy in the 2024 election, with Republican leaders pointing to it as an example of the consequences of illegal immigration.
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