Laken Riley’s mind was set on her future, just before her tragic death.
As the Georgia nursing student’s February murder reached its conclusion in the courts—with Venezuelan citizen Jose Antonio…
Riley
(ATHENS, Ga.) — The Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a case that became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration.
Jose Ibarra was charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s February death, and Wednesday’s guilty verdict was reached by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard. Ibarra, 26, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Haggard alone heard and decided the case.
Haggard found Ibarra guilty of all 10 counts against him: one count of malice murder; three counts of felony murder; and one count each of kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing an emergency call, evidence tampering and being a peeping Tom.
Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) east of Atlanta.
Riley’s family and friends tearfully remembered her and asked Haggard to sentence Ibarra to the maximum penalty. Her mother, Allyson Phillips, said there is “no end to the pain, suffering and loss we have experienced and will continue to endure.”
“This sick, twisted and evil coward showed no regard for Laken or human life. We are asking that the same be done for him,” she told the judge.
Riley’s younger sister, Lauren Phillips, a freshman at the University of Georgia, talked about the pain of living without her “favorite person” and “biggest role model” and the effect her sister’s death has had on her.
“I cannot walk around my own college campus because I’m terrified of people like Jose Ibarra,” she said.
Ibarra did not react as an interpreter relayed their words to him, but did appear to be looking at the speakers at times.
Defense attorney John Donnelly asked Haggard to give Ibarra two consecutive life sentences but to allow him the eventual possibility of parole.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross asked the judge for the maximum sentence, saying Riley’s family should never have to worry about Ibarra being released. Prosecutors decided before trial not to seek the death penalty.
“You can’t bring her back and it’s horrible. What you can do is give comfort with your sentence,” Ross said.
Haggard ultimately gave Ibarra the maximum sentence he could impose, including life in prison without the possibility of parole on the malice murder count.
Riley’s killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case. President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans blamed Riley’s death on the policies of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump applauded the verdict in a social media post, writing, “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!”
“Laken Riley herself has given you all the evidence you need” to find Ibarra guilty on all counts, Ross told the judge during her closing. She added that the physical evidence was sufficient and corroborated by forensic, digital and video evidence to “twist this very powerful knot that this defendant cannot get out of. There is no way out for him.”
The evidence shows that Ibarra killed Riley “because she would not let him rape her.”
Ross said Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails and her DNA and Ibarra’s were found on a jacket that police found in a trash bin in his apartment complex. A man seen in security footage throwing that jacket away was identified as Ibarra by his brother and another roommate, she said.
Riley was wearing “tight running clothes that are designed not to move,” Ross said. When her body was found, the waistband of her running tights was pulled down and her jacket, shirt and sports bra were pulled up, evidence that her clothes were displaced by an attempted sexual assault not by dragging, Ross said.
Surveillance video showed a man wearing clothes that appeared to match those seen in a selfie Ibarra snapped on his phone earlier that morning, lingering outside the apartment of a female graduate student. That student told police someone tried to get in the front door while she was in the shower and peered through her window.
Ibarra was “out prowling and hunting females” and when he couldn’t get in the apartment, he turned to the running trails looking for a victim, Ross said.
Defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge that the evidence was circumstantial and did not definitively prove Ibarra’s guilt.
“Because the evidence is subject to more than one interpretation, it is not beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.
Beck tried to cast doubt on a method of DNA testing used to test some of the evidence. She noted that when a fingerprint found on Riley’s phone was entered into a database, Ibarra didn’t come back as a match and a specialist visually matched the prints.
Beck said there was “doubt based on what was tested and on what was not tested” because investigators did not test some of the evidence they had gathered.
Throughout their questioning of witnesses and in Beck’s closing, defense attorneys tried to create doubt about Jose Ibarra’s guilt by suggesting that his brother, Diego, could not be excluded as a suspect.
The trial began Friday, and prosecutors called more than a dozen law enforcement officers, Riley’s roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra. Defense attorneys called a police officer, a jogger and one of Ibarra’s neighbors on Tuesday and rested their case Wednesday morning.
Prosecutors argued during the bench trial that Ibarra killed Riley after she fought off his attempt to rape her. “It is a direct result of that fight,” prosecutor Sheila Ross had told the judge, per NBC News, “that gives you all the physical evidence you need to convict.”
However, the defense argued that while the evidence showed the victim was murdered, it did not tie Ibarra to the killing without a reasonable doubt, and they suggested Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, could have killed Riley, NBC News said.
Riley is survived by her parents, two sisters and a brother. Her mother, Allyson Phillips, cried as she read her victim impact statement before the sentencing.
“This monster took away our chances to see Laken graduate from nursing school,” she said. “He took away our ability to meet our future son-in-law. He destroyed our chances of meeting our grandchildren, and he took my best friend.”
She added, “He took away every beautiful memory we won’t ever be able to make with her again.”
(E! and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)
Content warning: This story discusses assault and murder.
Details about Laken Riley‘s final moments are being revealed.
Nine months after she was killed while out for a jog, prosecutors shared the final text message the 22-year-old sent to her mom Allyson Phillips just before leaving for her morning workout at the intramural fields at University of Georgia.
“Good morning,” read the message shared by an investigator during the Nov. 19 trial, according 11 Alive, “about to go for a run if you’re free to talk.”
And that wasn’t the only way Riley tried to communicate with Phillips. The nursing student also tried calling her mom less than 10 minutes later and 911 shortly after that— though the latter call was abruptly cut short, according to a timeline shared by prosecutors in court, per the outlet.
Phillips wound up missing her daughter’s call, but she tried following up 20 minutes later and sent a string of anxious messages.
In October 2021, it wasn’t Meghan and Daryl’s bedroom habits that was making headlines, but rather their bathroom preference when she revealed that they have two toilets right next to each other for when they’d wake up with then-infant son Riley.
“Nobody knows this, but in our bathroom, there was one toilet, and a lot of time in the middle of the night when we’re with the baby, we’ve got to pee at the same time,” Meghan explained on Spotify’s Why Won’t You Date Me? podcast. “So I was like, ‘Can we please have two toilets next to each other?'”
She added, “We got two toilets sitting next to each other and we’ve only pooped together twice. We pee at the same time a lot.”
After Meghan’s toilet talk made headlines, she addressed all the buzz surrounding their unconventional bathroom set-up, admitting to E! News she “didn’t see” the reaction coming.
“The amount of times that we pee at the same time in the middle of the night makes me so grateful that I have two toilets because I don’t have to wait for him or he doesn’t have to wait for me,” she explained. “We’re so in sync. It is gross, but I love it.”
Meghan also set the record straight on social media.
“We pooped ONCE together and we laughed and said never again…,” she tweeted on Oct. 6 2021. “But he will hang out with me if I’m (popping emoji) cuz WE SOULMATES.” And she’s not here for any s—t talk, adding, “i legit miss him when I’m away from him. And we pee together obvi.”
Kurt Cobain’s Daughter Frances Bean Cobain Welcomes First Baby With Tony Hawk’s Son Riley Hawk
Smells like a newborn baby!
Riley Hawk, the son of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, shared a glimpse at his newborn baby, Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk, who he shares with wife Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Courtney Love and the late Kurt Cobain.
Riley, who is a professional skateboarder like his father, shared an adorable photo on his Instagram Story Oct. 15 of his son wearing a blue onesie with the Baker Skateboards logo on its chest.
The photo comes a few weeks after Riley, 31—whose mom is the athlete’s ex-wife Cindy Dunbar—and Frances, 32, announced the birth of their first child together Sept. 28 with a series of black-and-white photos.
In one of the pictures, Riley sweetly swaddles Ronin in his arms as he looks down at him adoringly, while the infant grabs his mother’s hand in another.
“9.17.2024 Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk,” Frances captioned her Instagram post. “Welcome to the world most beautiful son. We love you more than anything.”
First-time grandfather Tony was quick to comment on the post, cheekily writing, “My favorite grandson!”