During an arraignment hearing on Friday, the undocumented immigrant who is suspected of murdering Augusta University student Laken Riley filed a not-guilty plea.
Laken Riley’s Death:
During an arraignment hearing on Friday, the undocumented immigrant who is suspected of murdering Augusta University student Laken Riley filed a not-guilty plea.
Following the murder of Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, on February 22 when she was out for a run along dirt paths on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Jose Ibarra, 26, is charged with ten charges.
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, started crying as he arrived at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Courthouse on Friday, a Fox News reporter on the scene reported. According to a judge, a status hearing for the case will now occur in August, and a trial is anticipated by this fall.
Ibarra is accused of maliciously killing someone, two counts of kidnapping with bodily harm, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated battery, hindering someone from calling 911, tampering with evidence, and acting as a “peeping Tom.” These charges were brought against him by a grand jury.
Laken Riley’s Suspected Killer:
An indictment claims that Ibarra killed Riley by striking her head with blunt force trauma and “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to jurors.”
The indictment further claims that on the day he allegedly killed Riley, the suspect went to an apartment on UGA’s “University Village Housing Building ‘S,'” where he “peeped through” a window and “spied upon” a university employee.
The aspiring nurse was reportedly slain by Ibarra, who resided in an apartment building on the border of the campus park where Riley was jogging, in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark called a “crime of opportunity.”
Riley’s morning run around the picturesque circle is near Ibarra’s apartment building. The approximate location of Riley’s death is five minutes’ walk from Ibarra’s door.
According to ICE and DHS officials who previously spoke with Channels, Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, entered the country unlawfully in September 2022 through El Paso, Texas, and was later released on parole.