Man convicted of Laken Riley’s murder sentenced to life without parole

Before announcing the verdict, Haggard had said that while listening to the closing arguments, he wrote down two things the attorneys had said. He noted that prosecutor Sheila Ross called the evidence “overwhelming and powerful” and that defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck reminded him to “put my emotions aside” in making his ruling.

Riley’s murder has sparked the national debate on immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to remain in the country while he pursued his immigration case. But no mention of Ibarra’s immigration status was made during the trial.

“Laken Riley himself has given you all the evidence you need” to find Ibarra guilty on all counts, Ross told the judge during her hearing. She added that the physical evidence is sufficient and corroborated by forensic, digital and video evidence to “untie this very powerful knot that this defendant cannot get out of. There is no way out for him anymore.”

The evidence shows that Ibarra killed Riley “because she didn’t want him to rape her.”

Ross said Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails and that her DNA and Ibarra’s were found on a jacket that police found in a trash can at his apartment complex. A man seen on security footage throwing away that jacket was identified by his brother and another roommate as Ibarra, she said.

Riley was wearing “tight running clothes that are designed not to move,” Ross said. When her body was found, the waistband of her running tights was pulled down and her jacket, shirt and sports bra were pulled up, evidence that her clothing had shifted due to an attempted assault rather than dragging, Ross said.

Surveillance footage shows a man wearing clothing similar to that seen in a selfie Ibarra took on his phone earlier that morning while walking around outside a female graduate student’s apartment. That student told police someone tried to enter while she was in the shower and peered through her window.

Ibarra was “hunting for women” and when he couldn’t get into the apartment, he turned to the running paths in search of a victim, Ross said.

Attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge the evidence is circumstantial and does not definitively prove Ibarra’s guilt.

“Because the evidence is open to more than one interpretation, it is not beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.

Beck tried to cast doubt on a DNA testing method used to test some of the evidence. She noted that when a fingerprint on Riley’s phone was entered into a database, Ibarra did not come back as a match and a specialist visually matched the prints.

She said there was “doubt based on what was and was not tested” because investigators did not test some of the evidence collected.

During their questioning of witnesses and during Beck’s closing, the lawyers tried to cast doubt on Jose Ibarra’s guilt by suggesting that his brother, Diego, could not be ruled out as a suspect.

The trial began Friday and prosecutors called more than a dozen law enforcement officers, Riley’s roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra. Defense attorneys called a police officer, a jogger and one of Ibarra’s neighbors on Tuesday and rested their case on Wednesday morning.

Rose the judge said that Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on February 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, attended Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.

Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening statement that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case compelling and disturbing. But he said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove his client killed Riley.

Riley’s parents, roommates and other friends and family were in the courtroom throughout the trial.

Originally published: November 20, 2024 at 10:30 AM CST