Laken Riley: Migrant accused of murdering nursing student appears in court

Ms. Riley, a nursing student in Athens, northeast Georgia, was found dead in a wooded area of ​​the University of Georgia (UGA) campus after she failed to return from her morning jog on February 22 of this year.

Mr. Ybarra was arrested the next day. He faces 10 criminal charges, including aggravated murder, aggravated assault and other alleged crimes.

He waived his right to a jury trial, which means his case will be heard and decided by District Judge Patrick Haggard.

Court documents indicate that prosecutors are seeking a life sentence without parole.

As the trial began Friday in an Athens courtroom, lead prosecutor Sheila Ross said data from Ms Riley’s smartwatch showed she was “fighting for her life, fighting for her dignity” just minutes after of how she ran away.

The victim’s struggle was “fierce”, the prosecutor said. Ms Riley called police at 09:11 that morning and her heart stopped at 09:28 and her device stopped moving, the court heard.

The prosecution also presented video evidence, including security camera footage, which allegedly shows Mr Ybarra throwing blood-stained clothes and gloves into bins, which were emptied before police could search them.

Ms Ross said her team would present further evidence linking Mr Ybarra to the murder.

She said they found Mr. Ybarra’s DNA under one of Ms. Riley’s fingernails and his thumbprint on her cell phone.

Ibarra’s attorney, Dustin Kirby, admitted during his opening statement that “the evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered.”

But he said there was “lack of evidence” linking his client to Ms Riley’s death. He argued that this did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt – the threshold of evidence required to convict Mr Ibarra.

Judge Haggard also heard from two witnesses: Police Sergeant Kenneth Maxwell, who discovered the body, and Ms Riley’s roommate Lily Steiner.

Prosecutors played Mr Maxwell’s body camera footage, which clearly shows him attempting to resuscitate the young woman.

Ms. Steiner, 22, testified that she, Ms. Riley and their other roommates shared their locations with each other through a mobile app.

The roommates went to look for Ms Riley after she had been “in the woods for some time”, only to find one of her headphones. They called the police.

Ms. Riley’s death and Mr. Ybarra’s criminal and immigration history have become central to the immigration debate that will define the 2024 presidential election.

In March, President Joe Biden. a Democrat, during his State of the Union address, outraged over the murder of Ms. Riley.

Republican lawmakers blamed Ms. Riley’s death on the Biden-Harris administration. They said it was the White House’s fault that Mr. Ybarra, who entered the United States illegally in 2022, was able to remain in the country despite his criminal record.

In the race for the White House, President-elect Donald Trump, a Republican, invoked Ms. Riley’s name during the campaign.

Research of the National Institute of Justice, external suggests that undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are arrested for violent and drug-related crimes at less than half the rate of native-born citizens.