Jose Ibarra’s defense team began presenting its case Tuesday in the Laken Riley murder trial, calling two witnesses whose testimony was intended to cast doubt on the prosecution’s timeline of events on the day Riley was killed and to suggest that Ibarra’s brother might be responsible.
The defense’s first witness, Joseph Clementi, said he was walking the same route as Riley on the day of the murder. He testified that he told police he saw a man on the trail who caught his attention because “he wasn’t wearing typical athletic attire” like other people in the area that morning.
“The person was wearing very dark clothing and it appeared as if they were wandering aimlessly,” he testified Tuesday.
Clementi’s testimony seemed designed to cast doubt on the prosecution’s timeline. Prosecutors have said that after Ibarra killed Riley, he was captured on video throwing a jacket with her blood on it into a dumpster near his home around 9:44 a.m. Clementi testified that he saw the man on the running path sometime between 9:46 a.m. and 9:48 am
Under cross-examination, Clementi admitted that he could not identify the person he saw. He also testified that he told police that the person he saw may have been wearing khaki pants, unlike what Ibarra may have been wearing that day.
Ibarra, 26, a Venezuelan national, is accused of killing Riley, 22, on the morning of Feb. 22 while she was jogging near the University of Georgia campus in Athens, in a case that has become a centerpiece became part of the national immigration debate. He is charged with three counts: murder, murder with intent, kidnapping causing bodily harm, aggravated assault with intent to rape and ‘peeking at Tom’. If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Laken Riley.
The prosecution, which pointed to a variety of forensic, digital and video evidence to make its case, rested Tuesday afternoon after convening a parade of forensic experts who testified about the collection and testing of DNA and other evidence. The medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Riley’s body also testified.
Ibarra’s attorneys have called the evidence circumstantial and argued that someone else could have killed Riley, specifically Ibarra’s older brother Diego.
To support that argument, the defense called a woman who lived in the same apartment complex with the brothers. She testified Tuesday that Diego Ibarra told her he would “kill you too” if she talked to police.
Stephanie Slaton said she and Diego Ibarra sat outside their apartments on the night of Feb. 22, talking about Riley’s murder earlier in the day, as police swarmed the area and spoke briefly with them. After the officers left, she said, Diego Ibarra, who is not fluent in English, spoke in Spanish into his phone using a translation app and then showed her what she believed was a message translated into English.
She testified that the message read, “If you tell them, I will tell them you did it and I will kill you too.”
However, under cross-examination, the woman admitted that she had been drinking that day and the next day when she spoke with law enforcement officers. She also admitted to having a sexual relationship with Diego Ibarra and to being angry that he might be in a relationship with someone else. She also said that she was the one who told Diego Ibarra about the murder that night and that he did not seem to know what had happened.
The defense also called Diego Ibarra to testify on Tuesday, but he did not take the witness stand because his attorney in a federal immigration case was not present. It is not clear whether he will testify on Wednesday.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
