A medical examiner will present evidence Monday in the case against Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen charged in the February killing of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.
Ibarra, 26, faces 10 charges, including murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault and tampering with evidence. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally, and his undocumented status pushed Riley’s killing into the national conversation around immigration and safety.
The state is pursuing life in jail without parole. Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, and the case will be decided by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard.
The case began Friday during a full day of testimony where prosecutors for the state detailed how Riley went for her normal morning run when she encountered Ibarra, who is accused of attacking her on the running trail, dragging her nearly 65 feet into the brush, hitting her head with a rock, and attempting to assault her.
“He went hunting for females on the University of Georgia’s campus,” said prosecutor Sheila Ross. “When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock. Laken fought. She fought for her life.”
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said the evidence presented is circumstantial and doesn’t prove that Riley’s killer was Ibarra, or that there was intent for sexual assault.
Everyday technology plays a large role in state’s case
Riley’s loved ones knew something was wrong very early on the day of her death. Riley usually talked to her mom, Alysson Phillips, during her runs. Riley’s doorbell camera showed she left at 9:03 a.m. for her run, and her mom called at 9:06 a.m. but she didn’t answer. Phillips called Riley’s roommates to check in.
Meanwhile, Riley’s Garmin smartwatch she received as a Christmas present showed her running, on pace to make a 7-minute mile. Something stopped her “dead in her tracks” at 9:10 a.m., according to prosecutor Sheila Ross. Riley placed an S.O.S. emergency iPhone call at 9:11 a.m. After more than a minute, Riley’s phone was hung up. Dispatchers attempted to call back multiple times.
Data from Riley’s smartwatch showed her heart rate until about 9:28 a.m.
At 9:44 a.m., a man was seen on a doorbell camera throwing something into the dumpsters at the apartment complex where Jose Ibarra lived. Enhanced video shows the person wearing a dark Adidas hat. Later that night, officers found a jacket in the dumpster that had Riley’s blood and hair on it.
Earlier that morning, a trail camera on the University of Georgia’s campus captured a man in dark clothing with a white styrofoam cup walking around a bus stop near graduate housing. Cameras facing an apartment in graduate housing showed the same man approaching the apartment’s door six times between 7 and 8 a.m. trying to open the door twice.
Riley’s roommates were looking for her after her mom talked to them. They noticed on the “Find My iPhone” app that Riley was on a trail she ran regularly, but her location had not moved by 11:30 a.m., even though she left for her run three hours earlier.
Sofia Magana and Lilly Steiner, two of Riley’s roommates, went to the trail to look for her. Magana’s dog Champ became fixated on a spot on the trail near Riley’s location on Find My iPhone, and they found an AirPod.
“She always had a little bit more wax on her AirPods so I noticed the earwax,” Magana said at the trial.
When they couldn’t find Riley, they called the police.
Riley’s death changed the immigration landscape in Georgia, pushed national debate
ICE said Customs and Border Protection arrested Ibarra in September 2022 after he illegally entered the U.S. near El Paso, Texas. He was paroled and released while his immigration case was processed.
According to ICE, he was arrested in August 2023 by the New York Police Department and charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation. The NYPD released Ibarra before an immigration detainer could be issued.
ICE can issue a detainer when local law enforcement notifies them that a noncitizen has been arrested. The detainer is a request to state and local law enforcement to hold a person after they would otherwise be released so ICE can take custody of a person who could be deportable.
After Riley was killed, the Georgia state legislature adopted a law requiring all jurisdictions to comply with ICE detainers. Even before the 2024 law, data from the nonprofit Transactional Access Records Clearinghouse showed Georgia received the fourth-most detainer requests in the country in 2023.
That law was titled the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act of 2024, and included sweeping changes to local police’s relationship with ICE, including a provision that required all law enforcement to identify, arrest and detain undocumented immigrants – responsibilities normally reserved for federal immigration enforcement.
Republican State Rep. Jesse Petrea sponsored the legislation and during the legislative session said it would bolster public safety.
“We have the greatest border crisis in our nation’s history,” he said. “In Georgia, the people of this state, the people we represent, are expecting us to do something. And I think this is a good way to do just that.”
Republicans supported the legislation because they said these laws would bolster public safety, but immigrant advocates pointed to research that showed that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than citizens.
“It’s not about making Georgians safer,” said Jerry Gonzalez, CEO of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. “The issue is about using an opportunistic situation, to target wholesale, an immigrant and Latino community and that’s really divisive and it’s dangerous politics they’re playing.”
Legislation around immigration nevertheless became a top priority last session after Riley was killed. Her family was invited to speak in front of the state Senate, where they urged Georgia senators to take action against undocumented immigrants.
“A man with an evil heart stole her life. He was in this country and in this state illegally,” said Riley’s father, Jason. “My vision for every senator in this chamber is that you protect citizens from this illegal invasion.”
Multiple politicians on the national stage invoked Riley’s killing to emphasize their points on immigration. South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham used Ibarra as an example against immigration during a hearing about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
And Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted at President Joe Biden during his State of the Union pressing him to acknowledge Riley’s killing when he talked about immigration.
“(Laken) Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed,” said Biden, acknowledging Greene’s comments.
Greene shouted back, “By an illegal!”
“By an illegal. That’s right,” Biden said. “But how many thousands of people are being killed by legals?”
