{"id":107861,"date":"2024-11-15T18:03:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T18:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/laken-riley-case-bench-trial-set-to-begin-for-murder-suspect\/"},"modified":"2024-11-15T18:03:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T18:03:43","slug":"laken-riley-case-bench-trial-set-to-begin-for-murder-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/laken-riley-case-bench-trial-set-to-begin-for-murder-suspect\/","title":{"rendered":"Laken Riley case: Bench trial set to begin for murder suspect"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Laken Riley in an undated photo. Image via Augusta University<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(ATHENS, Ga.) — A bench trial is set to begin Friday for the suspect accused of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus.<\/p>\n

The suspect, Jose Ibarra, waived his right to a jury trial this week. Judge H. Patrick Haggard granted the defense’s motion for the bench trial on Tuesday, a day before jury selection had been scheduled to begin.<\/p>\n

The case will now be presented in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Haggard, who will render a verdict.<\/p>\n

Ibarra, 26, faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to malice murder, felony murder and other offenses.<\/p>\n

Police have said they believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — did not know Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Riley’s brutal death became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump. Trump mentioned her by name as recently as Nov. 3 when he campaigned in Macon, Georgia, in a final pitch to voters in the battleground state.<\/p>\n

Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run. The indictment alleges Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her” and seriously disfigured her head by striking her “multiple times” with a rock.<\/p>\n

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — a jacket and gloves — involving the offense of malice murder.<\/p>\n

Ibarra was also charged with a peeping tom offense. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a different person who lived in an apartment on campus. The judge last month denied a motion seeking to sever that charge from the case.<\/p>\n

Haggard also denied the defense’s motion for a change of venue in the high-profile case.<\/p>\n

Ibarra has been held without bond at the Clarke County Jail since his arrest on Feb. 23.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laken Riley in an undated photo. Image via Augusta University (ATHENS, Ga.) — A bench trial is set to begin Friday for the suspect accused of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus. The suspect, Jose Ibarra, waived his right to a jury trial thisRead More →<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,31,2],"tags":[273,271,276,274,270,123,275,133,124,272,102,103],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107861\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/newstalklc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}