A former roommate of the man accused of killing Laken Riley — the Georgia nursing student whose killing sparked a political firestorm over immigration — testified Monday that he is the man seen in a video throwing away a jacket that prosecutors say that it was Riley’s. blood on it.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, is accused of killing Riley, 22, on the morning of Feb. 22 while she was jogging near the University of Georgia campus in Athens. He is charged with three counts: murder, murder with intent, kidnapping causing bodily harm, aggravated assault with intent to rape and ‘peeking at Tom’. Ibarra, whose trial began Friday, has waived his right to a jury trial, meaning a judge will decide his fate. If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Riley’s death became a talking point for stricter immigration policies for Republicans, including Donald Trump, after it was determined that Ibarra was a Venezuelan citizen who entered the US illegally in 2022.
Laken Riley.
Prosecutors have said a variety of forensic, digital and video evidence presented at trial will point to Ibarra as Riley’s killer.
The evidence includes a jacket that police found in a dumpster near where Ibarra lived, which prosecutors say had both Ibarra’s and Riley’s blood on it.
Rosbeli Flores Bello, who shared an apartment with Ibarra at the time Riley was killed, testified Monday that when questioned the next day, she told law enforcement officers that she recognized the man seen in a video throwing a jacket into a dumpster threw.
Flores Bello, who met Ibarra last year in New York City before they both moved to Athens, agreed with prosecutors that it seemed “strange” that the person she identified as Ibarra threw away a jacket she had often seen him wearing.
She was also questioned about Ibarra’s whereabouts the morning Riley was killed. She said she woke up between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. to find both Ibarra and his brother Diego Ibarra in their shared bed, apparently asleep. Another of Ibarra’s brothers, Argenis Ibarra, was also in the apartment, she testified.
Law enforcement witnesses and evidence from the first two days of the trial established that Riley’s watch stopped recording cardiac data at 9:28 a.m. Video captured a man throwing a jacket into the dumpster at 9:44 a.m.
The defense, calling the evidence circumstantial and suggesting that someone else could have killed Riley, managed to get Flores Bello to confirm that she “didn’t notice anything that morning, as far as anyone leaving the apartment.”
In addition to Flores Bello, the prosecutor called a series of law enforcement officials to the witness stand Monday, including those who first interviewed Ibarra and others who reviewed the evidence, including cellphone records and prison sentences.
James Berni, a special agent with the FBI, testified Monday afternoon that cellphone records showed a phone linked to Ibarra was located “very close” to where Riley’s device location data was reported at the time she was on the run and then was murdered.
FBI Special Agent Jamie Hipkiss also testified about cell phone records he examined, including photos from a phone connected to Ibarra from the early morning of February 22. In the photos, Ibarra is wearing a hat, a black and white striped T-shirt and a jacket that Hipkiss said was “consistent with” the clothing the man wore in the dumpster video.
The defense asked Hipkiss if he was aware that others besides Ibarra were using that specific cell phone, and he responded that Ibarra’s brother Diego “had two accounts associated with that phone that were used at an unknown time.”
“But in the period leading up to the murder, Jose Ibarra was using that phone,” he said.
Hipkiss also testified that records showed the phone was back at Ibarra’s apartment at 9:58 a.m. and plugged in for charging.
Police Cpl. of the University of Georgia Rafael Sayan, who speaks fluent Spanish, testified earlier Monday that on the day after Riley’s murder, when the brothers were taken from their apartment and questioned, “the atmosphere was very relaxed and calm” and that they “ talking to each other, laughing.”
Sayan also said that when he asked Jose Ibarra about the numerous cuts on his arms and wrist, he “didn’t give a clear answer at all.”
Prosecutors also played a recording of a phone call between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, who was still in New York. During the conversation, which was translated by an FBI specialist, Franco raises her voice at Ibarra and repeatedly asks him to tell the truth, asking: “What happened to the girl?”
“She said she thinks it’s crazy that they don’t have anyone else’s DNA, they only have his, and she says she doesn’t understand how anyone can watch someone die and not call 911,” FBI specialist testified Abeisis Ramirez.
On Friday, Ibarra’s attorneys said during opening statements that there was not enough evidence to prove Ibarra was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed someone is circumstantial,” attorney Dustin Kirby said, adding that the evidence “linking Mr. Ibarra to that event is lacking upon closer inspection.”
Prosecutor Sheila Ross said during opening statements that Ibarra “went hunting for women” the morning Riley was killed and that forensic evidence, including DNA and a fingerprint, would prove he was guilty.
“The evidence will show that Laken fought – she fought for her life. She fought for her dignity, and in that fight she caused this defendant to leave behind forensic evidence,” Ross said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
