An illegal alien from Venezuela was convicted on Wednesday of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole following a four-day bench trial.
The defendant’s lawyers requested a bench trial because they feared a jury in Athens, Georgia, would be unable to review the evidence unbiasedly due to the publicity surrounding the case.
Riley’s murder gained national attention because the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was an alleged member of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and was in the country unlawfully. He was arrested by law enforcement on two separate occasions and released without notice given to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was also reportedly given a flight from New York to Georgia at the taxpayers’ expense.
Many Republicans, including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, pointed to the country’s open border policies as contributing factors in Laken’s death.
“This criminal should never been allowed to enter our country and he certainly should not have been allowed to stay after shamelessly breaking our laws,” Kemp stated in a Facebook post. “Open border policies failed Laken Riley, and today’s verdict is a reminder that the safety of our communities must remain our number one priority.”
President-elect Donald Trump posted on X: “JUSTICE FOR LAKEN RILEY! The Illegal who killed our beloved Laken Riley was just found GUILTY on all counts for his horrific crimes. Although the pain and heartbreak will last forever, hopefully this can help bring some peace and closure to her wonderful family who fought for Justice, and to ensure that other families don’t have to go through what they have. We love you, Laken, and our hearts will always be with you. It is time to secure our Border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our Country, so nothing like this can happen again!”
Ibarra was indicted on 10 counts relating to Riley’s murder that occurred in February of this year and also a separate charge for an unrelated Peeping Tom incident. Prosecutors alleged that Ibarra abducted Riley on a trail near her apartment home in Athens and attempted to rape her before killing her.
In deciding the case, Judge H. Patrick Haggard agreed with the prosecution’s statement that the “evidence was overwhelming and powerful.” The evidence presented at the trial included the defendant’s DNA found under the victim’s fingernails, his thumbprint on her cell phone that she used to signal for help, his cell phone records that placed him near the scene of the crime, and video recordings from a nearby apartment complex where a man who looked like the defendant was seen tossing a blood-stained jacket.
However, the prosecution contended that all the evidence was circumstantial.
“There is no end to the pain and suffering that he inflicted on our family and our friends,” Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, said in a victim impact statement at the trial, per Center Square. “I am asking you to please give this monster life without any chance of parole so that he never gets the chance to hurt anyone else ever again.”