Nov. 20 (UPI) — An undocumented migrant suspected of killing a University of Georgia student earlier in the year was found guilty of all charges, according to new reports.
On Wednesday, Jose Ibarra, 26, was found guilty in an Athens, Ga., courtroom of all 10 counts, including malice murder, three counts of felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injuries and aggravated assault with intent to rape, in the murder 22-year-old Laken Riley.
The verdict was given by Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggard.
But he will not face the death penalty. According to District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez, the prosecution will seek a life sentence without a possibility of parole.
“The evidence in this case has been overwhelming,” special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the court Wednesday in closing arguments.
Riley was a student at Georgia’s Augusta University when in February Ibarra allegedly killed her after the young student went out for a run, according to law enforcement. Riley’s body was later discovered in a wooded area of the nearby campus in Athens after police were able to ping the location of her phone.
The evidence in the case spoke “loud and clear,” Ross stated, that Ibarra was in fact Riley’s murderer “and that he killed her because she would not let him rape her.”
On Friday, his bench trial got underway in Athens, Ga., which saw the playing of graphic video that depicted when her body was found.
Prosecutors had called 28 witness. Multiple DNA evidence linked Ibarra to Riley on the day and night she was killed.
A native of Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally and a reported Tren de Aragua gang member, Ibarra had waived his right to a jury trial.
Roughly an hour after the verdict was handed down, President-elect Donald Trump — who largely politicized Riley’s death during the campaign — took to social media to say, in part, “our hearts will always be with you” for what he described as “horrific crimes.”
