Chilling new details have emerged about the murder of nursing student Laken Riley as Georgia state prosecutors prepare their case against the Venezuelan migrant accused of killing her.
Jose Ibarra, 26, was caught on multiple video cameras around a female student’s dorm room at the University of Georgia on Feb. 22, prosecutors have alleged in court documents.
The UGA dorm near Milledge Avenue Extension leads to the jogging trails that Riley, 22, used the morning before she was killed.
Prosecutors also say fingerprints matching Ibarra’s were found on Riley’s phone. Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.
He was later found with scratches and other injuries just a day after Riley’s body was found in a wooded area near the school’s intramural fields.
Prosecutors have presented evidence against Venezuelan migrant Jose Ibarra, 26, accused of murdering Georgia nursing student Laken Riley
Riley, 22, was found dead near jogging trails at the University of Georgia on February 22.
Ibarra also appears to be the man seen on video throwing bloody gloves and a bloody jacket with long, dark hair over it less than a half-hour after Riley was killed.
But the suspect pleaded not guilty to murdering the young woman, aggravated assault, kidnapping and other crimes associated with her death.
His lawyers argue that much of the evidence against him is unreliable or was obtained illegally without probable cause.
The attorneys say officers had no reason to suspect Ibarra of a crime when they arrested him Feb. 23 and are asking a judge to suppress evidence from two of his cellphones, his social media accounts, photos of his body and his DNA sample.
The attorneys also wrote in court documents that the fingerprint found on Riley’s cellphone “contains incomplete data and did not match any of the fingerprints belonging to (Ibarra) during the initial comparison to his known prints.”
The DNA evidence “did not exclude (Ibarra), but it also did not exclude another known individual associated with the case,” the lawyers argued, according to the Journal-Constitution.
Ibarra’s attorneys argue that much of the evidence against him is unreliable or was obtained illegally without probable cause.
They are also asking that the trial be moved out of Athens-Clarke County, arguing that juries there will not be impartial.
But prosecutors have pushed back against the claims, insisting the suspect was legally detained on reasonable suspicion of involvement in Riley’s death and saying the evidence against him was properly collected and should be presented to an Athens-Clarke County jury.
Prosecutors are also rejecting Ibarra’s request that the peeping tom charge be tried separately from the nine charges he faces in Riley’s murder.
Prosecutors say both incidents are part of Ibarra’s “single and ongoing plan to assault women,” while outlining the suspect’s alleged whereabouts on Feb. 22.
At 9:10 a.m., prosecutors say, Riley, a student at Augusta University’s College of Nursing, called 911 from her cell phone.
They said an unidentified University of Georgia student called 911 shortly before 8 a.m. to report that someone had looked through his dorm room windows and was at his front door near Milledge Avenue Extension.
University police responded a few minutes later, but the attacker was already gone.
At 9:10 a.m., Riley, a student at Augusta University’s College of Nursing, called 911 from her cell phone at a location less than 1,000 feet from that dorm.
“That 911 call – the last outgoing call from Laken Riley’s cell phone – was disconnected by defendant Ibarra,” prosecutors say.
‘These incidents are connected by time, place, motive and evidence.’
About half an hour after the phone call, Riley’s mother’s text messages and phone calls went unanswered.
The worried mother then “started a search” and her roommates went looking for her along the University of Georgia jogging trails.
They called 911 to report the nursing student missing shortly after noon that day, and about a half-hour later, university police found her “lifeless, beaten and partially nude body” in the wooded area near the intramural fields.
Officials said her killing appeared to be a random attack, and announced the next day that they were searching for a “Latino male” seen on video near the student’s dorm room and in a dumpster at an apartment complex less than a half-mile from where Riley was killed.
An Athens-Clarke County Sheriff’s Office sergeant patrolling Ibarra’s apartment complex later “saw in public, in plain view, walking in the apartment complex in broad daylight, a Latino male wearing the “identical” hat to the one seen in the dumpster video,” prosecutors said.
The man in the hat identified himself as Diego Ibarra, José Ibarra’s older brother, and allegedly gave police a fake green card.
He then allegedly let the officer into his apartment, where Jose and another brother, Argenis, were also present, and the officer called for backup.
Another officer who arrived at the scene noticed Jose had scratches and wounds, prosecutors said.
Ibarra was originally arrested on an outstanding warrant, and is now accused of hitting Riley in the head, choking her and lifting her clothing with the intent to rape her.
He was then arrested on an outstanding warrant and his apartment was searched later that day.
Prosecutors now say Ibarra hit Riley in the head, choked her and lifted her clothing with the intent to rape her.
He faces charges of wilful murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, obstructing an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and peeping tom.
The case is scheduled to be heard on October 11 and jury selection for the trial is scheduled to begin on November 13.
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