The undocumented migrant accused of murdering Georgia nursing student Laken Riley waived his right to a jury trial Tuesday, leaving a decision on the case in the hands of a judge.
Jury selection had initially been scheduled to start on Wednesday. Instead a bench trial will begin on Friday and continue into next week as the prosecution and defense present their evidence. Bench trials are typically faster and less expensive than jury trials.
Riley, a 22-year-old student at Augusta University in Athens, was found dead on Feb. 22 in a wooded area on the nearby University of Georgia campus. A concerned friend reportedly called police after Riley had not returned as usual from her morning run.
Riley’s body was discovered shortly after behind a lake in a forested area near UGA’s Intramural Fields. Her cause of death was later determined to be asphyxiation and blunt force trauma after being hit several times with a rock.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was arrested on Feb. 23 and later charged with a number of counts, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence.
Investigators at the time described the murder as random and a “crime of opportunity.”
Ibarra was also charged with a peeping tom offense against another person at an apartment on campus the same day of Riley’s murder. Ibarra’s defense has unsuccessfully tried to get that charge separated from the murder case.
Prosecutors said in a court filing they intend to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Ibarra, who pleaded not guilty, has been in custody at Clarke County Jail since his arrest.
During Tuesday’s hearing, he told the judge through a translator that he understood he could not reverse his decision to waive a jury trial. The request came after defense motions for a change of venue and for some evidence to be dismissed were rejected.
Riley’s brutal slaying became a flashpoint in the immigration policy debate during the recent presidential election by both Republicans and Democrats, much to the dismay of the victim’s family.
“I feel like she’s being used, somewhat, politically,” her father, Jason Riley, told NBC’s “TODAY” show in March. “It makes me angry. She was much better than that. She should be raised up for the person that she is.”
Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela — reportedly entered the country illegally in 2022. He was arrested at least twice after crossing the border and before Riley’s murder.
