ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — The Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a case that became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration.
Jose Ibarra listens through an interpreter during his trial at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Jose Ibarra was charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s February death, and Wednesday's guilty verdict was reached by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard. Ibarra, 26, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Haggard alone heard and decided the case.
Haggard found Ibarra guilty of all 10 counts against him: one count of malice murder; three counts of felony murder; and one count each of kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing an emergency call, evidence tampering and being a peeping Tom.
Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.
Riley’s family and friends tearfully remembered her and asked Haggard to sentence Ibarra to the maximum penalty. Her mother, Allyson Phillips, said there is “no end to the pain, suffering and loss we have experienced and will continue to endure.”
“This sick, twisted and evil coward showed no regard for Laken or human life. We are asking that the same be done for him,” she told the judge.
Riley's younger sister, Lauren Phillips, a freshman at the University of Georgia, talked about the pain of living without her “favorite person” and “biggest role model” and the effect her sister's death has had on her.
“I cannot walk around my own college campus because I’m terrified of people like Jose Ibarra," she said.
Ibarra did not react as an interpreter relayed their words to him, but did appear to be looking at the speakers at times.
Defense attorney John Donnelly asked Haggard to give Ibarra two consecutive life sentences but to allow him the eventual possibility of parole.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross asked the judge for the maximum sentence, saying Riley's family should never have to worry about Ibarra being released. Prosecutors decided before trial not to seek the death penalty.
“You can't bring her back and it's horrible. What you can do is give comfort with your sentence,” Ross said.
Haggard ultimately gave Ibarra the maximum sentence he could impose, including life in prison without the possibility of parole on the malice murder count.
Riley's killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case. President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans blamed Riley’s death on the policies of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump applauded the verdict in a social media post, writing, “We love you, Laken, and our hearts will always be with you. It is time to secure our Border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our Country, so nothing like this can happen again!”
“Laken Riley herself has given you all the evidence you need” to find Ibarra guilty on all counts, Ross told the judge during her closing. She added that the physical evidence was sufficient and corroborated by forensic, digital and video evidence to “twist this very powerful knot that this defendant cannot get out of. There is no way out for him.”
The evidence shows that Ibarra killed Riley “because she would not let him rape her.”
Ross said Ibarra's DNA was found under Riley's fingernails and her DNA and Ibarra's were found on a jacket that police found in a trash bin in his apartment complex. A man seen in security footage throwing that jacket away was identified as Ibarra by his brother and another roommate, 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 clothes were displaced by an attempted sexual assault not by dragging, Ross said.
Surveillance video showed a man wearing clothes that appeared to match those seen in a selfie Ibarra snapped on his phone earlier that morning, lingering outside the apartment of a female graduate student. That student told police someone tried to get in the front door while she was in the shower and peered through her window.
Ibarra was “out prowling and hunting females” and when he couldn't get in the apartment, he turned to the running trails looking for a victim, Ross said.
Defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge that the evidence was circumstantial and did not definitively prove Ibarra's guilt.
“Because the evidence is subject to more than one interpretation, it is not beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.
Beck tried to cast doubt on a method of DNA testing used to test some of the evidence. She noted that when a fingerprint found on Riley's phone was entered into a database, Ibarra didn't come back as a match and a specialist visually matched the prints.
Beck said there was “doubt based on what was tested and on what was not tested” because investigators did not test some of the evidence they had gathered.
Throughout their questioning of witnesses and in Beck's closing, defense attorneys tried to create doubt about Jose Ibarra’s guilt by suggesting that his brother, Diego, could not be excluded 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 Wednesday morning.