Undocumented migrant Jose Ibarra has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of nursing student Laken Riley.
The Venezuela native, 26, had pleaded not guilty to the 22-year-old’s February murder near the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Prosecutors had declined to seek the death penalty in the case.
Ibarra stared coldly as the verdict was read while his victim’s family sobbed in court.
He also did not show emotion as Riley’s heartbroken mother pleaded with the judge to give the killer the maximum punishment, calling him a ‘monster.’
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard found him guilty after he waived his right to a jury trial. The trial began on Friday.
Ibarra was convicted of all 10 counts against him: malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing an emergency call, evidence tampering and being a peeping Tom.
The case fueled the immigration debate during this year’s presidential election, with Republicans using it as an argument against Joe Biden and his immigration policies.
President-elect Donald Trump reacted to the verdict, writing on Truth social: ‘JUSTICE FOR LAKEN RILEY! The Illegal who killed our beloved Laken Riley was just found GUILTY on all counts for his horrific crimes.
‘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.
‘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!’
Following the sentencing, Republican state senator Colton Moore called on attorney general Chris Carr to demand that Ibarro be given the death penalty.
‘District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez let her radical political agenda stand in the way of justice,’ Moore said on X. ‘By refusing to seek the death penalty, she denied Laken’s family, friends, and community the full measure of justice they deserve.’
Riley’s body was found less than an hour after she was reported missing, near a lake on the University of Georgia campus. She had been a student there until 2023, when she transferred to Augusta.
Her roommates had reported her missing after becoming concerned that she had been out for longer than usual.
Prosecutors called more than a dozen law enforcement officers for the trial, as well as Riley’s roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra.
They showed selfies that Ibarra had taken on his phone just hours before attacking the student. That’s how police were able to prove that the phone that pinged close to where Riley was found was used by the killer.
‘He went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus. When Laken Riley refused to be his victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly,’ prosecutor Sheila Ross told the court.
Riley fought for her life for 18 minutes while Ibarra attempted to rape her before having her life snuffed out. DNA evidence found on her body later tied him to the crime,
‘She marked her killer for the entire world to see. It is his DNA. Only his DNA, underneath Laken’s right fingernails,’ Georgia special prosecutor Sheila Ross said.
‘He left behind his thumbprint on her iPhone, which was found near her body at the crime scene.’
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing. But he said there was not sufficient evidence to prove that his client killed Riley.
The defense team called a police officer, a jogger and one of Ibarra’s neighbors on Tuesday and rested their case Wednesday morning.
On Friday prosecutors said Ibarra’s DNA was a direct match to the DNA under Riley’s fingernails, and was ’10 billion times more probable than a coincidental match.’
They also showed images of suspicious scratches on Ibarra’s body at the time of his arrest.
The judge said that as he listened to the closing arguments, he wrote down on a legal pad two things the lawyers had said. He noted that prosecutor Sheila Ross called the evidence ‘overwhelming and powerful’ and that defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck reminded him he was ‘required to set aside my emotions’ in making his ruling.
Ibarra illegally entered the US through US-Mexico border in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case.
He has been identified as a member of the brutal Tren de Aragua gang.
On Monday, the court saw images of Ibarro’s brother and roommate, Diego Ibarra, who has a tattoo of a five-point crown of his neck, a symbol of association with the TDA.
TDA became a national story after shocking footage showed apparent members taking over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. The gang started in Venezuela’s prison and has spread through the western hemisphere as the oil-rich nation goes through the worst migrant crisis in the world.
Also on Monday, Ibarra’s other roommate Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello told the court that she moved to Georgia because Diego Ibarra had told the alleged killer there were jobs opportunities in Athens.
Flores-Bello said she met Ibarra in Queens, New York, and within a month decided to move to Georgia with him.
Diego Ibarra and a third brother, Argenis Ibarra, pleaded guilty in July to having fake green cards.
When asked how they obtained the plane tickets, Flores-Bello said they were provided by NYC officials.
‘In Manhattan, at The Roosevelt Hotel, we asked for a humanitarian flight to Atlanta, on the 9th or 10th of October, 2023,’ she testified.
Ibarra was arrested four months later for the student’s murder.