Donald Trump paid tribute to ‘beloved’ Laken Riley after an undocumented migrant was found guilty of her murder as Republicans demanded he get the death penalty.
Jose Ibarra, 26, was convicted on all 10 counts for his brutal slaying of the 22-year-old Augusta University student while she was jogging and got life in prison without parole.
‘JUSTICE FOR LAKEN RILEY! The Illegal who killed our beloved Laken Riley was just found GUILTY on all counts for his horrific crimes,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social website.
‘Although the pain and heartbreak will last forever, hopefully this can help bring some peace and closure to her wonderful family who fought for Justice, and to ensure that other families don’t have to go through what they have,’ he said.
Trump used emotional language, on a day family and friends gave dramatic testimony to the judge and shed tears in court.
‘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!’ wrote Trump.
Republicans including Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed the decision and called for Ibarra, who entered the country illegally, to be given the death penalty.
Georgia State Senator Colton Moore demanded the Attorney General Chris Carr file an emergency motion to demand the death penalty and slammed the Democrat prosecutor in charge of the case, Deborah Gonzalez.
‘I am officially calling on Attorney General Chris Carr to file an emergency motion to intervene and demand the death penalty for the murderer of Laken Riley,’ Moore wrote on X.
‘District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez let her radical political agenda stand in the way of justice.
‘By refusing to seek the death penalty, she denied Laken’s family, friends, and community the full measure of justice they deserve.
‘Join me in calling on AG Chris Carr to demand the death penalty for Jose Ibarra.’
As the judge read the verdict aloud, Riley’s family members and friends could be heard sobbing, while Ibarra sat stony-faced.
Haggard heard the evidence and rendered the verdict after Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial.
Trump and other Republicans often cited Riley’s murder in claiming falsely that migrants who crossed the southern border illegally were responsible for a wave of violent crime.
Trump spoke about her case at the Republican convention, where he blamed the Biden Administration for letting her killer into the country.
‘Yet another American life was stolen by a criminal alien set free by this administration,’ he said. ‘Tonight, America, this is my vow. I will not let these killers and criminals into our country.’
Trump’s House Republican ally Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for Riley’s killer to get the death penalty even though prosecutors chose not to pursue that option.
‘Jose Ibarra deserves the death penalty,’ the Republican congresswoman from Georgia wrote on X.
He ‘deserves exactly what he gave to Laken,’ she added.
But, since Georgia prosecutors didn’t seek the death penalty, the judge can choose life without parole or life with parole.
Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley, 22, on a wooded trail while she was out running on Feb. 22 and killed her after she resisted his efforts to rape her.
In her closing statement earlier on Wednesday, prosecutor Sheila Ross called the evidence against Ibarra “overwhelming,” including DNA under her fingernails that authorities linked to the defendant, scratches on Ibarra’s body and video footage of a man matching Ibarra’s description throwing a bloodied jacket into a dumpster soon after the murder.
Defense attorneys argued that the evidence was circumstantial and could not rule out another attacker.
Riley’s case made national headlines in March during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, when firebrand U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted his speech to demand that he “say her name.”
Biden went off-script to mention Riley, whom he described as an innocent woman killed by an “illegal.” Republicans criticized him for appearing to mispronounce Riley’s first name, while Biden later apologized for using the word “illegal” to refer to a person.
Biden, then the Democratic nominee for president, dropped out of the race in July and was replaced by Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost earlier this month to Trump.
Trump has vowed to pursue mass deportations of immigrants after he is sworn into office in January. (Reporting by Joseph Ax Editing by Bernadette Baum and Bill Berkrot)