During the recent election cycle, the murder of 22-year-old college student Laken Riley drew national attention, fueling an emotional and politically charged debate over immigration and crime after authorities said the suspect was an undocumented immigrant.
Now, the trial for the suspect, 26-year-old José Antonio Ibarra, has begun in Athens, Ga.
He faces multiple charges, including felony murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a Peeping Tom.
Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard will be the one to decide Ibarra's fate. Prosecutors have chosen not to seek the death penalty. Instead, court filings show they intend to seek a sentence of life in prison without parole.
During opening statements Friday, prosecutor Sheila Ross accusing Ibarra of killing Riley when she "refused to be his rape victim." Ross said Ibarra's DNA was left under the student's fingernails and his thumbprint was found on Riley's phone screen. Meanwhile, defense attorney Dustin Kirby described the evidence against Ibarra as circumstantial.
What happened
Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University. She transferred there from the University of Georgia, which does not offer a nursing program. Even after transferring, she continued to be an active member of her sorority at UGA.
On Feb. 22, police went searching for Riley after her friend reported that she had not returned from her morning run. Later that day, officers discovered Riley's body in a forested area near Lake Herrick on UGA's campus. According to authorities, Riley was unconscious with visible injuries. When emergency medical responders arrived, they pronounced Riley dead on the scene. Her cause of death was blunt force trauma.
The following day, Ibarra was arrested in connection with Riley's death. UGA Police Chief Jeff Clark said at the time that Ibarra's arrest was based on community input, campus video footage and physical evidence. Clark added that there was no evidence that Ibarra, who is not a U.S. citizen nor a UGA student, knew Riley.
How Riley's death became a focal point in the debate over immigration and crime
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Ibarra, a Venezuelan, unlawfully entered the U.S. near El Paso, Texas, where he was apprehended by Border Patrol agents in 2022. He was later released on parole. Ibarra was previously charged in New York City with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.
As those details emerged, Georgia Republicans were swift to blame Riley's death on the Biden administration's immigration policies.
In March, Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted President Biden's State of the Union address and shouted, "Say her name," referring to Riley.
Biden responded by saying Riley "was an innocent woman who was killed by an illegal." The president added, "To her parents I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself, I understand." He also urged Republican lawmakers to reconsider supporting a bipartisan immigration bill, which fell through in early February. It had aimed to strengthen border security as well as hire more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges.
Republicans in the House also passed the Laken Riley Act, which among other things, would require ICE to detain undocumented people accused of committing theft-related crimes like shoplifting. The legislation was sponsored by Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins.
President-elect Donald Trump also spoke of Riley during his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
"Yet another American life was stolen by a criminal alien set free by this administration," Trump said in July. "Tonight, America, this is my vow. I will not let these killers and criminals into our country."
Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly spoke of immigrants as criminals. However, multiple studies, including those from Stanford University and the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, indicate that immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S.-born people.
Recent investigations by The New York Times and The Marshall Project also found that between 2007 and 2016, there was no link between undocumented immigrants and a rise in violent or property crime in those communities.
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