ATHENS, Ga. — The man convicted of killing nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus is in court Friday, and a judge is hearing Jose Ibarra’s attorneys’ motion for a new trial.
Ibarra was found guilty of Riley’s murder in Nov. 2024 and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In a motion for a new trial, Ibarra’s attorneys claim the verdict went against the law and evidence and that the “court committed other errors of law that necessitate a new trial.”
They are arguing his constitutional rights were violated when a request to delay his trial was denied. They wanted Dr. Ruth Ballard, a forensic DNA consultant, to review complex data.
She testified Friday and said that work would take around six weeks to complete.
“So, the answer is unless everything, every star aligned, and all of that came to be and I was able to push everything aside, I would not be able to do it,” she said.
The judge is expected to rule March 2 on whether Ibarra gets a new trial.
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LAKEN RILEY MURDER
On Feb. 22, 2024, Riley went for a jog on UGA’s intramural fields and never returned. Police found her unconscious in a wooded area behind the fields. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators arrested Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who was in the country illegally.
Prosecutors said Ibarra attacked Riley, asphyxiated her and tried to sexually assault her. An autopsy determined that Riley died of blunt force trauma to her head and asphyxia.
THE TRIAL AND VERDICT
Ibarra’s trial took place in November 2024. He waived his right to a jury trial and elected instead for a bench trial, where the judge reaches the verdict.
Prosecutors called Riley’s roommate, a woman who lived with Ibarra and more than a dozen law enforcement officers to the stand. During the trial, the prosecution showed the judge surveillance video of Riley jogging just minutes before she was killed.
The defense called a police officer, a jogger and one of Ibarra’s neighbors to the stand.
After the closing arguments, Judge H. Patrick Haggard announced a guilty verdict on all charges: one count of malice murder; three counts of felony murder; and one count each of kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing an emergency call, evidence tampering and being a peeping Tom.
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