Illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra found guilty in Laken Riley murder

ATHENS, Ga. — A Georgia judge on Wednesday reached a verdict for Jose Ibarra, the suspect accused of murdering Augusta University student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus in February.

The suspect was found guilty of all 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 pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Riley’s family and friends sobbed in court as the judge announced his verdict.

Prosecutors said Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging along trails near Lake Herrick on the University of Georgia campus in Athens the morning of Feb. 22.

“Laken Riley herself has given you all the evidence you need alone to find this man guilty of every single count in this indictment,” prosecutor Sheila Ross said in her closing statement on Wednesday. “She did fight, and it is a direct result of that fight that gives you all the physical evidence you need to convict him.”

“He killed her because she would not let him rape her,” Ross added.

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Prosecutors argued the “peeping Tom” incident was related to the attack against Riley because it happened just over an hour before she was killed and showed Ibarra’s intent to prey on women the morning of Feb. 22.

Prosecutors say Ibarra saw Riley running along popular trails on UGA’s campus just after 9 a.m. on Feb. 22, attacked her, dragged her 64 feet into a wooded area and beat her head with a rock repeatedly, killing her.

Witnesses testified that DNA matching Ibarra’s was found in Riley’s fingernails and on a jacket with Riley’s hair recovered from a dumpster near his apartment complex.

“In order to find this defendant not guilty of killing Laken Riley, you would have to disbelieve DNA,” Ross said. “You would have to disbelieve fingerprint evidence.”

During rebuttal on Wednesday, the prosecution played video footage of authorities interrogating Diego Ibarra the day after Riley’s murder, showing Diego identifying his brother in security camera footage throwing the jacket with Riley’s hair on it in a dumpster behind their apartment complex on the edge of UGA’s campus. Diego identified Jose based on his clothing, hat and bag.

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“Of course I know my own brother,” Diego allegedly told police, according to Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Special Agent Lucas Beyer, one of the officers who interviewed Diego.

Ibarra’s defense attorneys argued that evidence against the Venezuelan national was circumstantial, and pointed to Jose’s brothers, Diego and Argenis Ibarra, who share similarities with Jose in their DNA makeup. Diego was also seen wearing the same black, Adidas-style hat prosecutors say Jose was wearing Feb. 22 when police questioned Diego on Feb. 23. DNA matching Riley’s was found on that same hat.

“The facts and the evidence in this case should leave you with some reasonable doubt,” Kaitlyn Beck said in her closing argument on Wednesday, adding later that “while the evidence in this case is voluminous, it is circumstantial.”

Much of the defense’s arguments suggested Diego may have something to do with Riley’s murder. Beck said in her closing statements that “it’s more than possible that one brother’s DNA would get on another brother’s clothes.”

Watch: Laken Riley, Jose Ibarra seen on trail camera footage day of murder

“I agree with the state, but Laken Riley was physically fit. She was fast. She could have outrun [Jose]. But there’s another suspect in this case who was taller, who was more physically fit, who was wearing sneakers on the day of the murder. And that is Diego Ibarra,” Beck said. 

Prosecutors, however, noted that security camera footage from a dining hall on UGA’s campus, where Diego worked, showed Diego arriving and leaving work on Feb. 22.

Argenis and Diego were subpoenaed to testify as witnesses for the defense, but the court ultimately decided not to allow their testimony because they are currently involved in their own criminal cases. Jose’s defense attorney, John Donnelly, mentioned that Diego’s defense attorney advised that he should not testify during Jose’s trial while he is currently charged with green card fraud. 

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Watch: Police enter Jose Ibarra’s apartment

On Monday, the second day of Ibarra’s trial, the court heard a recorded prison phone call between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, that was played aloud and translated by an FBI analyst who spoke fluent Spanish. Judge Haggard on Tuesday ruled that the translated call could not be submitted as evidence.

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“She said that 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 someone can see someone dying and not calling [sic] 911,” FBI analyst Abeisis Ramirez testified in court Monday while translating the call for the prosecution.

Ibarra and his brothers were in the United States illegally from Venezuela at the time of their respective arrests after Riley’s murder. Diego is charged with green card fraud after showing police a fake ID on Feb. 23, and Argenis has been placed on an immigration hold. 

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.

The three brothers lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running the morning of Feb. 22. Their apartment complex backed up to a shortcut that leads to running trails along UGA’s campus where Riley was found dead in a wooded area, partially naked and covered in leaves, that afternoon. She died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner.

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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.”

Diego Ibarra, who worked briefly at a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S., Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.