Laken Riley murder: Illegal immigrant suspect’s trial begins after last-minute legal maneuver

WARNING: GRAPHIC

ATHENS, Ga. – Jose Ibarra, the suspect charged in Augusta University student Laken Riley’s February murder on the University of Georgia campus, is set to appear in court Friday for the start of his trial.

Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging along trails near Lake Herrick on UGA’s campus the morning of Feb. 22.

Two security guards escorted Ibarra into the Athens-Clarke County courtroom around 7:30 a.m. Friday, about an hour-and-a-half before the start of the trial at 9 a.m., wearing a blue plaid shirt and gray dress pants with shackles around his wrists. 

Just before the start of the trial, approximately 20 members of Riley’s family entered the courtroom wearing solemn expressions.

WATCH: Hear Laken Riley’s 911 phone call played in courtroom

“[H]e went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus,”

— Sehila Ross, prosecutor 

“On Feb. 22, Jose Ibarra put on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket, and some black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus,” prosecutor Sheila Ross said in her opening statement Friday. Riley’s sister teared up upon hearing Ross’ first statements. 

Ross said Ibarra then encountered Riley on her typical morning run and attacked her. 

“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her head in with a rock repeatedly,” Ross said.

The suspect is charged with 10 counts total, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one count of aggravated battery, one count of hindering a 911 call, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of being a “peeping Tom.” Ibarra has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

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On Tuesday, Judge Patrick Haggard granted Ibarra’s request for a bench trial over a jury trial, meaning evidence will be presented in court only to Haggard rather than before a selected jury.

Ibarra and his brothers, also in the United States illegally from Venezuela, lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running.

The defendants’ attorney, Dustin Kirby, argued in his opening statement that evidence would not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibarra killed Riley. He said it would take “gymnastics” for the prosecution to argue Ibarra killed Riley with what he described as “circumstantial evidence.”

“We waived a jury trial in this case, with the hope and trust that despite the nature of this evidence that you could come to a verdict that was not just a way of of easing this family suffering, but it was based on an impartial and honest assessment of the evidence in this case,” he said. “If that happens and the presumption of innocence is respected, there should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged.”

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Ibarra allegedly murdered the aspiring nurse in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described as a “crime of opportunity.”

Riley left home for her morning run at 9:03 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 22. By 9:11 a.m., Ross said, Riley called 911, which dispatch answered, but there was no response from Riley.

The 911 call was played aloud in court Friday. The call was mostly silent, with a dispatch operator trying to get a response from the caller, but no voices could be heard. The only sounds over the course of the seconds-long call were birds chirping and a quiet whimpering sound toward the end of the call.

Riley’s roommates noticed she had not returned from her run and went to search for her around at 11:31 a.m. At 11:46, they found one of Riley’s AirPods on the ground near her usual running path. Shortly afterward, they reported her missing.

At 12:37, Sgt. Maxwell found Laken unconscious and not breathing. She was partially naked and covered in leaves. Authorities also noticed severe injuries to the side of her head.

Investigators with the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, UGA and the FBI immediately began searching for suspects. On the evening of Feb. 22, investigators with all involved entities went “dumpster diving” around the area where RIley was killed, searching for evidence, Ross said.

The prosecutor described their findings that night as “a combination of good police work and luck.”

At a dumpster near the apartment complex where Ibarra lived, an agent found a “suspicious” dark sweatshirt with hair and blood on it. Authorities immediately submitted the sweatshirt to a lab for testing.

An apartment nearby had a doorbell video camera with a view of the dumpster, and around 9:40 a.m. on Feb. 22, the camera captured a man disposing of something in the dumpster. A woman living in Ibarra’s apartment, Rosbeli Flores-Bello, would later identify the man in the video as Ibarra. 

Investigators would later test the recovered jacket for DNA evidence and found a combination of both Jose Ibarra’s and Riley’s DNA on the items. Investigators also found Ibarra’s DNA beneath Riley’s fingernails, Ross said.

The peeping Tom charge stems from another Feb. 22 incident in which the suspect allegedly went to a residence on UGA’s campus in Athens and “peeped through” a window and “spied upon” a university staff member, according to the indictment.

Ross said a male individual was captured on video camera footage  trying to open a UGA graduate student’s door around 7 a.m. on the same morning Riley was killed. Evidence showed the individual went to the student’s door “six times” and peeped through the student’s open windows, Ross said in her opening statement. The student called 911 at 7:57 a.m. that morning and reported hearing someone trying to open her door while she was taking a shower.

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Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News.

His older brother, Diego Ibarra, who worked briefly in a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S. called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.

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ICE previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jose Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and was “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”

Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.