The trial of José Ibarra, the man accused of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia, has begun on Friday.
Ibarra has been indicted on charges including three counts of felony murder and counts of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape and "peeping tom."
Ibarra has waived his right to a jury, paving the way for his bench trial, which will ultimately decide his fate. Prosecutors are seeking life in prison without parole.
Riley's murder dominated the national conversation for weeks, with Republicans claiming the case was an example for the need to strengthen border policies due to Ibarra's status of undocumented immigrant. In fact, state Republicans introduced shortly after a bill requiring, among other things, that all people taken to a jail in the state have their migratory status checked.
Riley, a nursing student at the Augusta University College of Nursing, disappeared after going for a jog on February 22. She was later found dead as a result of "blunt force trauma," police said.
University Police Chief Jeff Clark said that it didn't look like Ibarra new Riley and that the killing was a "crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened." According to the grand jury's indictment, Ibarra tried to rape Riley before "inflicting blunt-force trauma to her head and "asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to jurors."
He has also been accused of going to an apartment in the University of Georgia premises and "peeping through" a window and "spying upon" a university staff member on the same day he killed riley.
Ibarra's brother Diego also got in legal trouble this year after pleading guilty to possessing a fake green card. Ibarra, 29, was initially arrested by law enforcement for matching the description of his brother Antonio, sought for Riley's murder, and handed the document determined to be false. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in early March and this week pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a fraudulent document.
Originally published on Latin Times.
