Trial begins for the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley

ATHENS, Ga. â€”  A Venezuelan man “went hunting for females on the University of Georgia’s campusâ€� this year and ended up killing nursing student Laken Riley after a struggle, a prosecutor said Friday. A defense attorney said the evidence is circumstantial and doesn’t prove his client is guilty.

Jose Ibarra is charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s February killing. The case and the arrest of Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally two years ago, helped fan the immigration debate during this year’s presidential campaign.

Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, meaning his case is being heard and decided by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ibarra encountered Riley, a 22-year-old student at Augusta University College of Nursing, while she was out running on Feb. 22.

“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly,� Ross said, adding that the evidence will show that Riley “fought for her life, for her dignity.�

As a result of that fight, Ibarra’s DNA was left under her fingernails, Ross said. Riley called 911 and, in a struggle over her phone, Ibarra’s thumbprint was left on the screen, she said.

The forensic evidence is sufficient to prove Ibarra’s guilt, but digital and video evidence will also show that Ibarra killed Riley, the prosecutor said.

Defense attorney Dustin Kirby called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing, but he said none of it proves that his client killed Riley.

“The evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered,� he said. “The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Laken Riley is circumstantial. The evidence that anyone had any intent or certainly committed any sexual assault is speculation.�

The killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.

Republicans, including then-candidate Donald Trump, held up her death as they criticized U.S. border policies. President Biden, as he spoke about border security during his State of the Union address weeks after the killing, mentioned Riley by name.

Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, and other family members packed the courtroom Friday. Phillips put her face in her hands and cried frequently.

Ibarra sat at the defense table in a plaid shirt with his hands and feet chained. He wore headphones to hear a Spanish-language interpreter and appeared attentive.

During her opening statement, Ross laid out a timeline for the judge using doorbell and surveillance camera video as well as data from Riley’s phone and watch to piece together her final moments.

Riley left home at 9:03 a.m. and headed for wooded trails where she often ran. Data from her watch show that at 9:10 a.m., she was running at a fast pace when something happened that made her “stop dead in her tracks,� and she called 911 at 9:11 a.m.

A 911 dispatcher answered but no one responded when she repeatedly sought a response, and then the call was ended by the caller. The dispatcher immediately called back, but no one answered.

“Her encounter with him was long. Her fight with him was fierce,� Ross said, noting that Riley’s watch data showed her heart was still beating until 9:28 a.m.

Ross also played security camera video that shows a man she said is Ibarra at 9:44 a.m. in a parking lot at his apartment complex. The man tossed something in a recycling bin and then appeared to throw something in nearby bushes. In the recycling bin, officers found a dark hooded jacket with blood that turned out to be Riley’s on it and strands of long dark hair caught on a button. In the bushes, they found black disposable kitchen gloves, one of which had a hole in the tip of the thumb.

Another video from about 35 minutes later shows what appeared to be the same man wearing different clothes and walking toward a trash bin with a bag and then walking back empty-handed. That bin was emptied before police were able to search it.

One of Riley’s three roommates testified that she became worried when Riley didn’t return from a run. The four friends used a phone app to track one another’s whereabouts, and Lilly Steiner testified that she became more worried when she saw that Riley’s phone showed her in the same location for a long time.

Steiner and another roommate, Sofia Magana, walked to the trail where the phone app indicated Riley was located. They found what they believed was one of Riley’s AirPod earbuds and returned home to call police.

One of the officers who responded found Riley’s body partially covered by leaves, 64 feet off the trail. Ross said there was no evidence that Riley had been sexually assaulted.

Ibarra is charged with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping Tom.

Prosecutors say that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra peered into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.

Brumback writes for the Associated Press.