The man accused of killing a nursing student whose body was discovered on the University of Georgia campus is expected in court Friday for a motions hearing before his trial next month.
Jose Ibarra is charged with murder and other charges in the February death of Laken Hope Riley. A 10-count indictment alleges that Ibarra punched the 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student in the head, asphyxiated her, and pulled up her garments to sexually attack her. Ibarra pleaded not guilty to all allegations.
During a hearing in August, Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard stated that jury selection will begin on Nov. 13 and the trial will follow the next week.
Riley’s death became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate since Ibarra, who is from Venezuela, entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was permitted to stay to pursue his immigration petition. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, blamed Riley’s death on President Joe Biden’s border policy.
Riley’s body was discovered on February 22 near running trails after a friend informed authorities that she had not returned from a morning run. According to police, her death appeared to be the result of a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and is in the Athens-Clarke County Jail without bond.
The indictment accuses Ibarra of one crime of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated violence, interfering with an emergency phone call, tampering with evidence, and peeping Tom.
According to the indictment, on the day Riley was killed, Ibarra glanced into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, giving rise to the peeping Tom charge.
The judge will hear arguments on four motions Friday. Those include Ibarra’s attorneys’ demand to transfer the trial from Athens due to pre-trial publicity, as well as an attempt to have the peeping Tom allegation tried separately because it concerns a different claimed victim. His attorneys also want to exclude some material and expert testimony.
Following an extraordinary migratory rush that stretched finances in places such as New York, Chicago, and Denver, the country’s flawed immigration system has resurfaced as a key campaign topic. Trump, the Republican presidential contender, has increased his anti-immigrant rhetoric by claiming that migrants commit crimes at a higher rate than Americans, even though the facts do not support these statements.
In late September, Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris walked a stretch of the US-Mexico border and called for tighter asylum restrictions to project a tougher stance on illegal migration and address one of her biggest vulnerabilities in the November election. She struck a balance between strong language about border security and appeals for a better approach to welcome immigrants legally.