The man accused of killing Laken Riley earlier this year “went hunting for women” the day the Georgia nursing student was killed, prosecutors told a judge Friday on the first day of Jose Antonio Ibarra’s trial .
“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he repeatedly struck her skull with a rock,” prosecutor Sheila Ross said in her opening statement.
A medical examiner found that Riley died of blunt force trauma and asphyxia and had a complex skull fracture and eight other lacerations on the left side of her head, she said.
Riley’s murder became a flashpoint in the immigration debate. Ibarra, 26, is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the United States illegally in 2022, officials say. Republicans, including Donald Trump, who met with Riley’s parents before a campaign rally in March, have used the case to call for stricter border policies.
Jose Ibarra will appear in court in Athens, Georgia on October 11.
Ross said the prosecution’s forensic, digital and video evidence “will point to one individual, Jose Ibarra, as the killer of Laken Riley.”
Ibarra faces multiple charges, including three counts of murder and premeditated murder, kidnapping with bodily harm, aggravated assault with intent to rape and ‘voyeur’. He is accused of accosting Riley while she was running on the morning of February 22. She was found dead later that day in a wooded area on the University of Georgia campus in Athens after her roommates called the police when she did not return. At home. Riley’s three roommates testified Friday.
Ibarra has waived his right to a jury trial. Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard will consider the evidence and decide whether Ibarra is guilty.
Ross told the judge Friday that prosecutors would show that Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails and that his fingerprint was found on her iPhone.
She said police also found a jacket in a dumpster near where Ibarra lived and that it had both Ibarra’s and Riley’s blood on it. Riley’s blood was also found on black gloves that had been discarded near Ibarra’s home.
Ibarra’s lawyers called the evidence against him circumstantial.
Laken Riley.
“The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed someone is circumstantial,” said attorney Dustin Kirby, adding that the evidence “linking Mr. Ibarra to that event is lacking” upon closer inspection.
Kirby said there is not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ibarra is guilty of the crimes he was accused of.
The first witness called to testify Friday was Lilly Steiner, one of Riley’s roommates at the time. She said she, Riley and their other two roommates “were like a little family, and we called each other our family. We did everything together.”
“Laeken brought a sense of joy to our lives that has been missing since,” she said.
Steiner, 22, testified that the four roommates used an app on their phones to share their locations with each other and said she became concerned that morning when Riley’s location had not been moved from the same spot on the running track she was visiting.
She said that after texting Riley and getting no response, she wrote in a group message with another roommate that Riley “has been in the woods for a while.”
She testified that she and another roommate went to the running track to find Riley, but only found one of her AirPods. The concerned housemates then returned home and called the police, something they were unable to do while on the road due to an AT&T service outage that day.
The officer who found Riley’s body also testified Friday.
Sergeant Kenneth Maxwell said Riley’s shirt had been pulled up in a way that “looked more deliberate, as if someone had tried to take off her top or perhaps used it to drag her.”
The prosecutor played a video of Maxwell continuously attempting to resuscitate Riley after finding her body and invoking his discovery.
Police previously said there was no evidence the suspect knew the victim and that Ibarra did not have an extensive criminal background.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
