A migrant accused of killing Laken Riley took a free Biden administration flight to Georgia

On By Pranco

Jose Antonio Ibarra, the migrant who allegedly murdered a nursing student Laken Rileyreceived a taxpayer-funded hotel stay New York City and a flight to Atlanta, Georgiain September 2023, a witness in a criminal case said Monday.

Rosbeli Flores Bello, a Venezuelan migrant and former roommate of Ibarra, testified at his trial that she was staying at the iconic Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, which had been converted into a temporary migrant shelter.

Flores Bello said she and others “requested a humanitarian flight to come here to Atlanta.”

She had gone to Athens, Georgia, to find work that Ibarra’s brother Diego had promised her.

Ibarra reportedly received a taxpayer-funded flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Atlanta in September 2023.

Less than six months later, Ibarra allegedly hunted down and killed Riley in Athens on February 22.

Last week during the trial, prosecutors said Riley “fought for her life” for 18 minutes during which he allegedly hit her head with a rock and choked her as she tried to fend him off during an assault. Prosecutors showed the exact timing of her struggle with Ibarra and her death through digital forensics on her phone and smartwatch, which tracked her heart rate, peaking at 170 beats per minute and dropping dramatically to zero.

Flores Bello was questioned about video footage showing Ibarra throwing away a jacket in a dumpster that she had often seen him wearing. Prosecutors alleged that Riley’s blood was on the jacket, and she agreed with them that it seemed “strange” that he would throw the jacket away in February.

An FBI agent testified Monday that cellphone records showed Ibarra was very close to Riley’s cellphone at the time of the killing.

Police Cpl. from the University of Georgia Rafael Sayan had been involved in interrogating the Ibarra brothers and noticed the accused murderer with multiple cuts to his arms and wrist.

Prosecutors also played a recording of a prison telephone conversation between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, who pressed repeatedly him: “What happened to the girl?”

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Ibarra’s attorneys say the evidence was “circumstantial” and that evidence linking Ibarra to the crime is “missing.” He has been charged with murder, aggravated assault, assault, kidnapping and concealing the death of another. He was also charged with interfering with a 911 call.

Flores Bello does faced with her own legal problems with Ibarra’s younger brother, Argenis Ibarra. Both are accused of possessing fraudulent U.S. permanent resident permits and counterfeit U.S. Social Security cards.