The trial of an undocumented immigrant accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley – whose name became a conservative rallying cry in the border security debate during the US election – has begun in the US state of Georgia.
During opening statements prosecutors said that they have digital, forensic and video evidence to prove Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan migrant, killed the 22-year-old university student.
Mr Ibarra “went hunting for females” and – when Ms Riley fought back – “he bashed her skull in with a rock”, the lead prosecutor alleged.
The defence team pushed back, arguing that the evidence linking Mr Ibarra to Ms Riley’s death was merely “circumstantial”.
Ms Riley – a nursing student in the city of Athens, in northeast Georgia – was found dead in a wooded area of the University of Georgia (UGA) campus when she did not return from her morning run on 22 February.
Mr Ibarra was arrested the next day and has remained in custody since then. He faces 10 criminal charges, including felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault and other alleged crimes.
Ibarra has waived his right to a jury trial, which means that his case is being heard and decided by a county judge, H Patrick Haggard.
Court records show that prosecutors are seeking a life sentence without parole.
As the trial opened on Friday in an Athens courtroom, lead prosecutor Sheila Ross presented evidence logged on Ms Riley’s smart watch to allegedly show that she had “fought for her life, fought for her dignity” only minutes after departing on her run.
Her team also shared video evidence, including security camera footage that allegedly showed Mr Ibarra throwing away bloodied clothes and gloves into trash and recycling bins – which were emptied before police could search them.
Ms Ross said her team would present further proof that would link Mr Ibarra to the murder.
She alleged that they had found Mr Ibarra’s DNA under one of Ms Riley’s fingernails and his thumbprint on her mobile phone, which the nursing student had attempted to use to call authorities.
Ibarra’s defence attorney Dustin Kirby conceded during his opening statement that “the evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered”.
But he said the evidence connecting his client to Ms Riley’s death is “lacking”. He claimed that it did not convince beyond a reasonable doubt – the evidence threshold required to find Mr Ibarra guilty.
Judge Haggard also heard from two witnesses: Sergeant Kenneth Maxwell, who discovered the body, and Ms Riley’s roommate – Lily Steiner.
Prosecutors played Mr Maxwell’s body-camera footage, which graphically showed his attempts at resuscitating the young woman.
On the witness stand, Sgt Maxwell said the scene did not look like that of an accident. He said it appeared as though “somebody had attempted to either remove her (Ms Riley) top, or maybe had used it to drag her”.
Ms Steiner, 22, testified that she, Ms Riley and their other roommates shared their locations with one another via a mobile app.
The roommates went looking for Ms Riley when she had “been in the woods a while”, but only found one of her headphones. They then called police.
Ms Riley’s death and Mr Ibarra’s criminal and immigration history became a central topic in the immigration debate that defined the 2024 presidential election.
In March, President Joe Biden was heckled over Ms Riley’s murder during his State of the Union address.
Republican lawmakers blamed the Biden-Harris administration for Ms Riley’s death. They said it was the fault of the White House that Mr Ibarra, who entered the US unlawfully in 2022, was able to remain in the country despite his criminal record.
In the race for the White House, President-elect Donald Trump frequently invoked Ms Riley’s name on the campaign trail, met with her family members and vowed to “not let [migrant criminals] spill one more drop of precious American blood”.
Trump has regularly alleged that the migrants entering the US are criminals who could pose a threat domestically.
A National Institute of Justice study shows, however, that undocumented migrants in the US are arrested for violent and drug crimes at less than half the rate of native-born citizens.
