Laken Riley case: Murder suspect was 'hunting' for women on UGA's campus, prosecutor says
The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old Laken Riley was "hunting" for women on the University of Georgia's campus the day the nursing student was found brutally murdered on the school grounds, a prosecutor said Friday during opening statements in the bench trial.
Special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the court that while on that "hunt," the defendant, Jose Ibarra, encountered Riley while she was out for her morning jog on Feb. 22.
"When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly," Ross said. "That is what this case is all about."
Riley's brutal death became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump. Trump mentioned her by name as recently as Nov. 3 when he campaigned in Macon, Georgia, in a final pitch to voters in the battleground state.
Ross said she will present forensic, digital and video evidence that "will point to one person, Jose Ibarra, as the killer of Laken Riley."
Among the evidence, Ross said a Garmin watch Riley had just gotten for Christmas showed she stopped running at 9:10 a.m., seven minutes after leaving her apartment for her run on the campus trail.
"Something happens. He does something to her to make her stop dead in her tracks," Ross said. "She initiates the SOS function on her phone and calls 911, and she immediately stops."
Ross said Riley and Ibarra struggled over her iPhone, and that the 911 call was ended on the phone. The muffled call, which lasted a little over a minute, was played in court, during which the dispatcher repeatedly said "hello" and asked, "Can anyone hear me?" when she got no response. Forensic evidence shows that Ibarra's thumbprint was left on the phone, which was found near Riley's body in the wooded area, Ross said.
About four minutes later, the Garmin watch was moved 65 feet into the woods, Ross said. Then, at 9:28 a.m., her heart rate stopped, the watch data showed, according to Ross.
"Her encounter with him was long, her fight with him was fierce, and that is what the Garmin data shows," Ross said.
Ross said additional evidence was left by the defendant in this fight, including Ibarra's DNA under Riley's right fingernails. When officers interviewed Ibarra amid their investigation into Riley's murder, he had scratches on his arms, wrist, hand and the back of his neck, Ross said.
"The evidence will show that Laken fought. She fought for her life. She fought for her dignity, and in that fight, she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind," Ross said.
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby countered in his opening statement that the prosecutor's evidence is "circumstantial," and that any intent to commit a sexual assault is "speculation." He also tried to sow doubt into the fingerprint testing.
Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial this week. Judge H. Patrick Haggard granted the defense's motion for the bench trial on Tuesday, a day before jury selection had been scheduled to begin.
The case is now being presented in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Haggard, who will render a verdict.
"We waived a jury trial in this case with the hope and trust that despite the nature of this evidence, that you could come to a verdict that was not just a way of easing this family's suffering, but it was based on an impartial and honest assessment of the evidence in this case," Kirby said. "If that happens and the presumption of innocence is respected, there should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged."
Ibarra, 26, faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to malice murder, felony murder and other offenses.
Police have said they believe Ibarra -- a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 -- did not know Riley and that this was a "crime of opportunity."
Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn't return from a run. The indictment alleges Ibarra killed her by "inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her" and seriously disfigured her head by striking her "multiple times" with a rock.
Riley's body was found hidden, covered with leaves, after she was reported missing by her roommates when they couldn't get ahold of her and discovered one of her AirPods while searching for her, Ross said. The body camera footage from the University of Georgia police officer who found Riley's body was played in court on Friday. Haggard paused before the graphic footage was played to allow anyone who wanted to leave the courtroom to do so.
Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he "knowingly concealed" evidence -- a jacket and gloves -- involving the offense of malice murder.
Ross said during her opening statement that Ibarra was captured on video discarding a jacket and three black disposable kitchen gloves near his apartment complex at 9:44 a.m. the day of Riley's murder. The thumb of one of the gloves had a hole in it, and Riley's blood was recovered on the gloves, she said.
The officer who found the jacket in a dumpster the night of the murder testified Friday that there were leaves and dark stains on the jacket, and dark-colored hair was wrapped up in one of its buttons. Another officer testified he found the gloves in a bush near the dumpster.
Ibarra was also charged with a peeping tom offense. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley's murder, he spied through the window of a different person who lived in an apartment on campus. The judge last month denied a motion seeking to sever that charge from the case.
Ross said during her opening statement that on the morning of Riley's murder, Ibarra was seen on video going to a female student's apartment multiple times. The student called 911 at 7:57 a.m. to report that someone was trying to open the door to her apartment, Ross said.
Ross said the person at the apartment was wearing clothes similar to ones Ibarra had on in a Snapchat selfie posted earlier that morning, including a black Adidas cap. Trail camera footage placed a similarly dressed person an hour after that incident near the path where Riley went running, she said.
Ibarra has been held without bond at the Clarke County Jail since his arrest on Feb. 23.
Haggard previously denied the defense's motion for a change of venue in the high-profile case.
