OAN Staff James Meyers
10:51 AM – Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Jose Ibarra, the illegal migrant from Venezuela charged with the murder of Augusta University student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus in February, has decided to choose a trial by judge over jury.
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Ibarra is accused of attacking and murdering Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging along the highly popular trails on UGA’s campus during the morning of February 22nd.
The suspect appeared in court on Tuesday, when his defense team and state prosecutors asked Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggard for a bench trial rather than a trial by jury, which the judge granted. The bench trial will now begin on Friday.
Ibarra and his brothers, also in the U.S. illegally from Venezuela, lived at the time in an apartment building that is located on the edge of the on-campus park where Riley was running. The Venezuelan migrant murdered the nursing student in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described as a “crime of opportunity.”
In May, a Georgia grand jury indicted Ibarra on counts of malice murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated battery, obstructing or hindering a person from making a 911 call, tampering with evidence and being a “peeping Tom.”
The “peeping Tom” charges relate back to another February 22nd incident during which Ibarra Allegedly went to a residence on UGA’s campus in Athens, where he “peeped through” a window and “spied upon” a university staff member, the indictment alleges.
However, Ibarra tried to get the “peeping Tom” charge thrown off the cashew, but prosecutors argued that the two incidents are “inextricably intertwined,” and an Athens-Clarke County judge ultimately decided not to remove the charge.
Additionally, the judge is allowing DNA and cell phone evidence in the trial that Ibarra’s defense didn’t want to be used in the case.
Meanwhile, the suspect is set to be back in court on November 15th for his trial. Jury selection for his trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday, November 13th, before he requested a bench trial.
In September 2022, Ibarra illegally crossed into the U.S through El Paso, Texas, and was released into the U.S. via parole, according to ICE and DHS.
His older brother, Diego Ibarra, has been charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S. called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.
Riley’s death made national news during the 2024 presidential election as Republicans and Democrats debated over the record number of illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border over the last four years.
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