Laken Riley homicide trial: Decide reaches verdict for unlawful immigrant suspect

ATHENS, Ga. — “Angel mother” Jacqueline Medina, whose daughter Lizbeth Medina was allegedly murdered by a Mexican unlawful immigrant in December 2023, on Wednesday joined a refrain of voices responding to the responsible verdict and sentencing for Laken Riley assassin Jose Ibarra, a refrain that included President-elect Donald Trump and his allies.

Athens-Clarke County Superior Court docket Decide H. Patrick Haggard discovered Ibarra, 26, responsible of 10 counts in reference to Riley’s Feb. 22 homicide. These fees included one depend of malice homicide, three counts of felony homicide, one depend of kidnapping, one depend of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one depend of aggravated battery, one depend of hindering a 911 name, one depend of tampering with proof and one depend of being a “peeping Tom.” 

Haggard sentenced Ibarra to life in jail with out the potential of parole after listening to sufferer impression statements from Riley’s family and friends on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m deeply moved to see that Laken Riley’s household has acquired some measure of justice,” Medina advised Fox Information Digital of the decision in a press release. “Whereas no verdict or sentencing can ever erase the ache of shedding somebody so younger and filled with promise, we hope this brings them a small sense of closure of their ongoing grief.”

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Medina stated Riley and her daughter “had a lot in frequent – they each dreamed of turning into nurses, have been vibrant and filled with potential, and have been each victims of mindless violence.”

“[T]hey each dreamed of turning into nurses, have been vibrant and filled with potential, and have been each victims of mindless violence.”

— Jaqueline Medina

“Their tales remind us of the devastating penalties these acts of cruelty go away behind,” Medina stated. “On the similar time, I can not assist however mirror on our personal battle for justice. Our case is being held behind closed chambers, and we’re left at midnight about important developments. Simply yesterday, we realized concerning the movement for an madness plea, which has now delayed the courtroom course of by an extra two months. Our trial, initially set for December 2, 2024 – almost a 12 months after Lizbeth’s homicide – has been pushed again even additional.”

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Medina feels she has been left at midnight all through the authorized course of, and the latest delay has compounded her household’s “frustration and heartbreak.”

“Our households deserve transparency, and this case ought to obtain the identical precedence and urgency as Laken Riley’s and Jocelyn Nungury’s grieving households[.] All of us share the identical ache and the identical objective: to see justice served for our family members,” Medina stated. “Simply as Laken’s household has acquired a step towards closure, we too lengthy for justice for Lizbeth. Via all of this, we’re united in our sorrow, our resilience, and our help for each other as we navigate these tough occasions collectively.”

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Politicians additionally reacted to the decision in statements to Fox Information Digital on Wednesday. 

“I’m proud of the decision however it’s actually too little, too late,” Tom Homan, President-elect Trump’s choose to steer Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) below his administration, stated in a press release. “The lifetime of Laken was tragically taken by a monster that ought to by no means have been right here. That is on Biden, Harris and Mayorkas.”

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The White Home didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital.

Brandon Judd, a Border Patrol agent and president of the Nationwide Border Patrol Council, stated he’s “glad the household bought closure, however closure is not going to convey Laken again.”

“Laken’s homicide falls immediately on the shoulders of President Biden. He put politics over the protection of U.S. residents, and Laken paid for his lust for energy together with her life. Whereas the decision is welcome, Laken ought to be alive as we speak,” Judd stated.

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Phil Holloway, a Georgia-based prison protection lawyer and former assistant district lawyer, stated, “Laken Riley died by the hands of a monster.”

“Joe Biden and the open-borders industrial complicated, together with leftist sanctuary metropolis insurance policies, led her proper into his arms. Her blood is on Joe Biden’s arms. He ought to have been impeached over this. It is not too late for that both,” Holloway stated. “This could ship the message loud and clear to sanctuary cities across the nation that we’ll not sacrifice one other Laken Riley on the [altar] of wokeism.”

“Laken’s assassin won’t ever breathe free air once more. He’ll die in a Georgia jail.”

— Phil Holloway

Holloway added that Ibarra was sentenced to the “absolute most doable jail time period,” including that the “proof was overwhelming, and this conviction is not going to be overturned on attraction.”

Of their sufferer impression statements learn within the courtroom on Wednesday, Riley’s household remembered her as a loving younger lady who was devoted to her religion and her future profession as a nurse.

“Your honor, on February twenty second of 2024, our household and buddies got a life sentence and not using a likelihood of parole. Jose Ibarra took no pity on my scared, panicked and struggling youngster,” Riley’s mom, Allyson Philips, stated Wednesday. “There isn’t any finish to the ache, struggling and loss that we’ve got skilled or will proceed to endure on that horrific day. My treasured daughter was attacked, crushed and proven no mercy. She fought for her life and dignity and to avoid wasting herself from being brutally raped. This sick, twisted and evil coward confirmed no regard for Laken or human life.”

Philips described her daughter as “sensible, hardworking, sort, considerate, and most significantly, a baby of God.” She “had a private relationship with Jesus, and he or she liked being the arms and toes of his arms and toes on this world,” Philips stated.

“She shared her love for our Lord with others by her mission journeys, working with aged on the nursing properties and thru her nursing profession,” Philips stated. “Laken was a tremendous buddy, sister, niece, daughter and granddaughter. Anybody who knew her knew about her loving coronary heart. Laken’s life was not the one life taken on that day that Jose Ibarra attacked her. The lifetime of her household and buddies was taken, too. None of us will ever be the identical.”

In a gut-wrenching journal entry that Riley wrote in December 2023, in keeping with her stepfather, John Philips, the 22-year-old wrote, “To my future husband, I need you to know that I am interested by you and dealing each day to develop into one of the best spouse I might be … and specializing in God and what he defines as a devoted Christian spouse, in order that I can greatest embody these traits.”

Prosecutors stated Ibarra, a 26-year-old unlawful immigrant from Venezuela, attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta College nursing pupil, whereas she was jogging alongside trails close to Lake Herrick on the College of Georgia campus in Athens on the morning of Feb. 22.

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“On Feb. 22, Jose Ibarra placed on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket and a few black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went looking for females on the College of Georgia campus,” prosecutor Sheila Ross stated in her opening assertion on Nov. 15. Riley’s sister teared up upon listening to Ross’ first statements. 

LAKEN RILEY MURDER TRIAL: PROSECUTORS PLACE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT AT SCENE IN OPENING STATEMENTS

Ross stated Ibarra noticed Riley working alongside the frequented trials on UGA’s campus simply after 9 a.m. on Feb. 22, attacked her, dragged her 64 toes right into a wooded space and repeatedly beat her head with a rock, killing her.

“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape sufferer, he bashed her head in with a rock repeatedly,” Ross stated on Nov. 15.

Riley tried to name 911 at 9:11 a.m., however the name was disconnected. Prosecutors additionally stated Ibarra’s fingerprint was on the underside of Riley’s cellphone, the place one may finish a cellphone name.

“It’s no coincidence that his thumbprint is on her cellphone,” Ross stated Wednesday.

WATCH: AUTHORITIES WAKE JOSE IBARRA DAY AFTER LAKEN RILEY’S MURDER:

Ibarra and his brothers, additionally in the USA illegally from Venezuela, lived in an condominium constructing lower than a half mile from the on-campus park the place Riley was working.

The defendants’ lawyer, Dustin Kirby, argued in his opening assertion that proof wouldn’t show past an inexpensive doubt that Ibarra killed Riley. He stated it will take “gymnastics” for the prosecution to argue Ibarra killed Riley with what he described as “circumstantial proof.”

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“If that occurs and the presumption of innocence is revered, there shouldn’t be sufficient proof to persuade you past an inexpensive doubt that Mr. Ibarra is responsible of the crimes charged,” Kirby stated on Nov. 15.

The Athens-Clarke County courtroom heard from 29 of the prosecution’s witnesses over three days, with Ross highlighting proof starting from Ibarra’s DNA on key items of proof to safety digicam footage and cellphone knowledge inserting him on the location of the crime on the time Riley was killed.

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Witnesses testified that DNA matching Ibarra’s was present in Riley’s fingernails and on a jacket with Riley’s hair recovered from a dumpster close to his condominium complicated.

Ibarra’s protection attorneys argued that proof in opposition to the Venezuelan nationwide is circumstantial, they usually have pointed fingers towards Jose’s brothers, Diego and Argenis Ibarra, who share similarities with Jose of their DNA make-up. Diego was additionally seen sporting the identical black Adidas-style hat that prosecutors say Jose was sporting on Feb. 22 when police questioned Diego on Feb. 23. DNA matching Riley’s was discovered on that very same hat.

“The information and the proof on this case ought to go away you with some affordable doubt,” Kaitlyn Beck stated in her closing argument on Wednesday, including later that “whereas the proof on this case is voluminous, it’s circumstantial.”

A lot of the protection’s arguments advised Diego could have had one thing to do with Riley’s homicide. Beck stated in her closing assertion that “it is greater than doable that one brother’s DNA would get on one other brother’s garments.”

Watch: Laken Riley, Jose Ibarra seen on path digicam footage day of homicide

“I agree with the state, however Laken Riley was bodily match. She was quick. She might have outrun [Jose]. However there’s one other suspect on this case who was taller, who was extra bodily match, who was sporting sneakers on the day of the homicide. And that’s Diego Ibarra,” Beck stated.

Prosecutors, nevertheless, famous that safety digicam footage from a eating corridor on UGA’s campus, the place Diego labored, confirmed Diego arriving and leaving work on Feb. 22.

Argenis and Diego have been subpoenaed to testify as witnesses for the protection, however the courtroom in the end determined to not permit their testimony as a result of they’re at present concerned in their very own prison circumstances. Jose’s protection lawyer, John Donnelly, talked about that Diego’s protection lawyer suggested that he shouldn’t testify throughout Jose’s trial whereas he’s at present charged with inexperienced card fraud.

UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark beforehand described the homicide as a “crime of alternative” throughout a February press convention.

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Ibarra illegally crossed into the USA by El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was launched into the U.S. through parole, ICE and DHS sources beforehand advised Fox Information.

His older brother, Diego Ibarra, who labored briefly in a UGA cafeteria earlier than his arrest in February, is charged with inexperienced card fraud and had ties to a recognized Venezuelan gang within the U.S. known as Tren de Aragua, in keeping with federal courtroom paperwork.

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ICE beforehand confirmed to Fox Information Digital that Jose Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Division a 12 months after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and was “charged with performing in a fashion to injure a baby lower than 17 and a motorcar license violation.”

Fox Information’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.