What to know about Jose Ibarra’s Georgia trial in killing of Laken Riley on UGA campus

ATHENS — Jose Ibarra is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley nearly nine months ago on the University of Georgia campus.

The high-profile murder trial is scheduled to begin Friday in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court.

Riley’s slaying in February was the first homicide on the grounds of Georgia’s flagship public university in more than two decades. It also added fuel to an already intense national debate over U.S. border security.

Ibarra, a Venezuelan who authorities say entered the country illegally in 2022, waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead to have Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard listen to the evidence and render a verdict.

Here’s what you need to know about the case:

Who was Laken Riley and how was she killed?

Riley was a 22-year-old student studying in Augusta University’s nursing program in Athens. She made the fall 2023 dean’s list. She previously attended the University of Georgia and was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.

She graduated in 2020 from River Ridge High School in Woodstock, where she was on the cross-country team.

According to prosecutors, on the Thursday that Riley went out for her morning run, police received a 911 call just before 8 a.m. to report that an unidentified man had looked through a female student’s dormitory windows. University police responded minutes later, but did not locate the suspect.

At 9:10 a.m., Riley called 911 from her cellphone at a location less than 1,000 feet from the dormitory, the state says. Several calls and text messages to Riley from her mother that morning had gone unanswered. Prosecutors said Riley’s roommates went looking for her on the running trails but couldn’t find her. The roommates reported Riley missing just after noon.

Police discovered Riley’s body just before 1 p.m. on Feb. 22 in a wooded area near the University of Georgia intramural fields.

Riley had been asphyxiated and struck in the head several times with a rock, authorities said.

Police arrested Ibarra the following day.

Credit: Courtesy photo

Credit: Courtesy photo

Who is Jose Ibarra?

Ibarra, 26, lived in Athens at an apartment complex on South Milledge Avenue, not far from where Riley’s body was discovered.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Ibarra is from Venezuela and was arrested in 2022 after illegally entering the United States. Officials said he illegally crossed the border near El Paso, Texas, and was paroled and released for further processing.

Ibarra initially settled in New York City, where he had a brush with local law enforcement. In August 2023 he was arrested in New York for driving a scooter while unlicensed and with a child who was not wearing a helmet. He was not prosecuted or jailed. By October, he had relocated to Athens.

Ibarra failed to report his 2023 move from New York to Georgia, authorities said.

Two of Ibarra’s brothers, Diego Ibarra and Argenis Ibarra, were taken into federal custody after Riley’s death, both accused of entering the United States unlawfully. Only Jose Ibarra is charged in Riley’s death. Diego Ibarra pleaded guilty in July to possessing a fraudulent green card.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

What is Jose Ibarra charged with?

Ibarra is charged with felony murder, malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, hindering a 911 call and tampering with evidence.

He has pleaded not guilty to those charges as well as to a related allegation that he peeped into a female UGA student’s window the same morning.

The district attorney’s office filed paperwork in court indicating it will seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

How did Riley’s killing become political?

Riley’s death became a flashpoint in the national debate over illegal immigration.

Gov. Brian Kemp sent a letter days after Riley’s killing to the White House demanding details such as the immigration status of Ibarra. “The American people deserve to know who is illegally entering our country due to your administration’s failures,” Kemp wrote to President Joe Biden, “and what risks and challenges every state must now face.”

Weeks later at his State of the Union address, Biden had a back-and-forth with U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who shouted “It’s about Laken Riley.”

Biden responded by holding up a button bearing Riley’s name, and sharing her story. As Greene shouted out she was killed by “an illegal,” Biden responded that Riley was “an innocent woman who was killed by an illegal, that’s right. … To her parents I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself.”

In March, former President Donald Trump met privately with Riley’s parents at a campaign rally in Rome. Trump later called Riley “brilliant” during his speech at the Republican National Convention in July. “Yet another American life was stolen by a criminal alien set free by this administration,” Trump said in the speech.

Credit: TNS

Who is special prosecutor Sheila Ross?

Sheila Ross, a veteran prosecutor with some of Georgia’s most high-profile murder trials under her belt, was tapped to lead the case.

Ross is the director of capital litigation for the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia. She has tackled some of Georgia’s most complex and memorable prosecutions, including the racially motivated murder of Sparkle Rai at the direction of Rai’s father-in-law. She also helped secure the conviction of millionaire James Sullivan in his wife’s murder.

Credit: Nell Carroll

District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez requested assistance from Ross. Gonzalez had previously been criticized for her handling of high-profile cases, her decision not to prosecute certain low-level drug offenses and a mass departure of staff attorneys on her watch.

Gonzalez lost to independent challenger Kalki Yalamanchili in her reelection bid earlier this month.

What to know about Judge H. Patrick Haggard

H. Patrick Haggard was sworn in as a Superior Court judge in the Western Judicial Circuit in 2011.

Haggard presided over a monthlong, high-profile murder case in Athens in 2015. Jamie Hood was found guilty in the 2011 shooting death of a police officer and also convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of another police officer. Hood was sentenced to life in prison.

Haggard served as the Municipal Court judge for the city of Winterville, in Clarke County, from 1992 to 2011.