Athens, Georgia — Venezuelan man convicted of Georgia nursing student Lakin Riley was killed He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, where a judge will hear arguments on his request for a new trial.
It was Jose Ibarra He was convicted in November 2024 Murder and other crimes in Riley’s death nine months ago. Ibarra, 28, had entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay while he pursued his immigration case. Riley’s murder Tensions rose in the national debate On immigration.
the The first bill signed by President Donald Trump When he took office last year, Lakin-Riley lawinspired by the murder of the 22-year-old. It requires the detention of people who are in the country without authorization and accused of theft and violent crimes.
Prosecutors said Ibarra confronted Riley while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus in Athens on February 22, 2024, and killed her during a struggle. Riley was a student at Augusta University’s College of Nursing, whose campus is in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.
Ibarra’s lawyers say his constitutional rights were violated by the judge’s denial of a request for a delay so the defense could get an expert to review key evidence, and by the admission of cellphone evidence that the defense sought to exclude. They demand that the conviction and life sentence be overturned and that he be granted a new trial.
Under Georgia law, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days after the conviction becomes final, which is the later of the date of sentencing or the date the motion for a new trial is denied. Therefore, filing a motion for a new trial effectively extends the deadline for filing an appeal.
Ibarra’s trial attorneys filed a motion for a new trial within weeks of his conviction. New attorneys have since taken over his case and filed an amended motion for a new trial earlier this month.
Arguments will be held Friday before Clark County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who heard and decided the Ibarra case after Ibarra. He waived his right to a jury trial.
Before the trial, Ibarra’s lawyers asked the judge to disallow evidence resulting from the search of two cellphones that the state believed belonged to Ibarra. They said the search warrants used to seize and search the phones were not valid because police did not have probable cause to obtain the search warrants. Haggard rejected those arguments.
Ibarra’s trial lawyers also asked the judge to exclude evidence and expert testimony based on the use of TrueAllele Casework, a program used to analyze DNA. After one of the experts told the defense attorneys that she would need six weeks to review the data and complete the report, they asked the judge to postpone the hearing scheduled a few weeks before the trial, and thus the trial. In the end, the judge continued the trial as scheduled.