Laken Riley Murder Suspect Quickly Sentenced to Life in Prison: Lawyer

Jose Ibarra, the suspect charged in the February killing of Augusta University student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus, is “accelerating himself to life” in prison by choosing a bench trial over a jury trial, according to Georgia officials resident criminal defense attorney Philip Holloway.

Ibarra, 26, allegedly attacked and murdered Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, on the morning of Feb. 22 as she jogged along busy pedestrian paths on the UGA campus.

Holloway told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he “doesn't understand the tactics” of Ibarra's defense, which on Tuesday called for a bench trial instead of a jury trial, which prosecutors agreed to and Judge Patrick Haggard granted. Ibarra's trial is now scheduled to begin on Friday instead of Monday, when a jury trial would otherwise have taken place.

“He's headed for life without parole,” Holloway said. “It will certainly speed things up. … From a legal perspective, I don’t know why the defense would do this.”

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Holloway added that by choosing a bench trial, Ibarra was wasting his chance to get a juror to question his guilt. In other words, instead of having the possibility of a single juror challenging the evidence presented against Ibarra and a mistrial occurring, the murder suspect has instead chosen to present evidence before a judge who will then decide his fate .

Holloway added that the “evidence of guilt” in Ibarra's murder was overwhelming.

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Laken Riley was found dead near a lake on campus on February 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Facebook)

“The presentation of evidence moves much more quickly,” said the defense attorney at a trial, and the prosecution and defense might even choose to forego opening and closing statements, as they would in a jury trial, because in a jury trial A bench test is not necessary.

Ibarra and his brothers, who also came to the United States illegally from Venezuela, lived in an apartment building on the edge of the campus park where Riley worked. Ibarra allegedly murdered the student nurse in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark called a “crime of opportunity.”

Jose Ibarra will appear at a pretrial evidentiary hearing on November 1, 2024 in Athens, Georgia. (Robin Rayne for Fox News Digital)

In May, a Georgia grand jury indicted Ibarra on charges of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping with intent to commit bodily harm, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to commit rape, two counts of aggravated assault, and obstructing or impeding a person from making an emergency call. Tampering with evidence and being a peeping Tom.

The Peeping Tom charge stems from another incident on Feb. 22 in which the suspect allegedly walked to a jail Residence on the UGA campus in Athens and “peeped through a window” and “spied on” a university employee, the indictment says.

Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)

Ibarra recently tried to have the “Spit Tom” charge dropped from his case, but prosecutors argued that the two incidents were “inextricably linked” and Haggard ultimately decided not to drop the charge.

The judge also allows DNA and cell phone evidence that Ibarra's defense sought to suppress.

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This is a general view of the area where Laken Riley's body was found on February 24, 2024 near Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)

The 26-year-old suspect is due back in court for his trial on November 15th. Jury selection for his trial was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, November 13, before he requested a mistrial.

Ibarra entered the United States illegally El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was paroled into the United States, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News. His older brother, Diego Ibarra, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a well-known Venezuelan gang in the United States called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.

Lake Riley Murder: Video shows man hiding bloody jacket and gloves just minutes after student's death, prosecutor says

According to court documents, Diego Ibarra is shown posing with multiple handguns on his social media accounts. (Middle District of Georgia)

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Riley's death was widely mentioned during the 2024 presidential election as Republicans and Democrats debated the impact of record levels of illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border over the past four years.

Rachel Morin of Maryland, Jocelyn Nungaray of Texas, Lizbeth Medina of Texas, Ruby Garcia of Michigan and Maria Gonzalez of Texas are women who were allegedly killed by illegal immigrants in the last two years.