Man accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley on college campus is opting out of trial

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A man waived his right to a jury trial Tuesday in the killing of a Georgia nursing student, a case that became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.

Jose Ibarra was charged in the February killing of Laken Hope Riley, whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus. In a 10-count indictment, Ibarra was accused of striking the 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student in the head, suffocating her and intending to sexually assault her.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ibarra's lawyers contacted her last week to say he wanted to waive his right to a jury trial, meaning it would only be heard by the judge. Then Ibarra's attorney, Kaitlyn Beck, presented the judge with a signed waiver.

After questioning Ibarra with the help of a translator, Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard said he concluded that Ibarra made the decision to forgo a jury trial voluntarily.

Prosecutors had decided not to seek the death penalty but said in a court filing that they wanted to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin Wednesday, but defense attorneys requested a postponement because they would not have had enough time to hire an expert to analyze DNA evidence.

Shortly after his arrest, federal immigration officials said Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen, entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was allowed to remain there to pursue his immigration case.

Immigration was already a major issue in the presidential campaign, and Republicans seized on Riley's killing, with now President-elect Donald Trump blaming Democratic President Joe Biden's border policies for her death.

When discussing border security in his State of the Union address just weeks after Riley's killing, Biden mentioned Riley by name.

Riley's body was found near running trails on February 22 after a friend told police she had not returned from a morning run. Police said her killing appeared to be a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and is being held without bail at the Athens-Clarke County Jail.

The indictment charges Ibarra with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of aggravated murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, obstructing an emergency call, tampering with evidence and spying on Tom.

The indictment alleges that on the day of Riley's murder, Ibarra looked through the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which forms the basis for the “espionage” charge.

Defense attorneys had unsuccessfully tried to move the trial from Athens, treat the peeping tom charge separately and exclude some evidence and expert reports.

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