A Venezuelan man has been convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in the killing of the Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, a case that fueled the national debate over US immigration during this year’s presidential race.
José Ibarra was charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s death in February, and the guilty verdict was reached on Wednesday by the Athens-Clarke county superior court Judge H Patrick Haggard.
Ibarra, 26, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Haggard alone heard and decided the case.
Riley’s family and roommates cried as the verdict was read.
Haggard found Ibarra guilty of all 10 counts against him: 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.
Ibarra did not visibly react. Relatives had asked the court for a sentence of life without parole.
Riley’s younger sister, Lauren Phillips, a freshman at the University of Georgia, talked about the pain of living without her “favorite person” and “biggest role model” and the effect her sister’s death has had on her. “I cannot walk around my own college campus because I’m terrified of people like José Ibarra,” she said.
The killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the US in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case.
The trial began last Friday, and prosecutors called more than a dozen law enforcement officers, Riley’s roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra. Defense attorneys called a police officer, a jogger and one of Ibarra’s neighbors on Tuesday and rested their case on Wednesday morning.
The prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on 22 February and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (113km) east of Atlanta.
The defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing. But he said there was not sufficient evidence to prove that his client killed Riley.
Ahead of sentencing, the defense attorney John Donnelly asked Haggard to give Ibarra two consecutive life sentences but to allow him the eventual possibility of parole.
Ross, the prosecutor, had asked the judge for the maximum sentence, saying Riley’s family should never have to worry about Ibarra being released. Prosecutors decided before trial not to seek the death penalty.
“You can’t bring her back and it’s horrible. What you can do is give comfort with your sentence,” Ross said.
Haggard ultimately gave Ibarra the maximum sentence he could impose, including life in prison without the possibility of parole on the malice murder count.
Riley’s parents, roommates and other friends and family packed the courtroom throughout the trial.
