ATHENS, Ga. — A man on Tuesday waived his right to a jury trial in the killing of a Georgia nursing student, a case that became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.
Jose Ibarra was charged in the February killing of Laken Hope Riley, whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus. A 10-count indictment accused Ibarra of hitting the 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student in the head, asphyxiating her and intending to sexually assault her.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ibarra’s attorneys contacted her last week to say that he wanted to waive his right to a jury trial, meaning it would be heard only by the judge. Then Ibarra’s attorney Kaitlyn Beck presented the judge with a signed waiver.
After questioning Ibarra with the aid of a translator, Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard said he found that Ibarra had made the decision to waive a jury trial willingly.
Prosecutors had chosen not to seek the death penalty but said in a court filing that they intended to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jury selection had been expected to begin on Wednesday, but defence attorneys asked for a postponement saying they hadn’t had enough time to have an expert analyze DNA evidence.
Shortly after his arrest, federal immigration officials said Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen, illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. Immigration was already a major issue in the presidential campaign, and Republicans seized on Riley’s killing, with now-President-elect Donald Trump blaming Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death.
As he spoke about border security during his State of the Union address just weeks after Riley’s killing, Biden mentioned Riley by name.
Riley’s body was found on Feb. 22 near running trails after a friend told police she had not returned from a morning run. Police have said her killing appeared to be a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and is being held in the Athens-Clarke County Jail without bond.
The indictment charged Ibarra with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and peeping Tom.
The indictment said that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra peered into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.
Defence attorneys had tried unsuccessfully to have the trial moved out of Athens, to have the peeping Tom charge handled separately and to exclude some evidence and expert testimony.