ATHENS — Defense attorneys for Jose Ibarra, accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus, sparred with a prosecutor Friday over what evidence can be admitted at trial later this month.
In the preliminary hearing in the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Ibarra’s lawyers challenged evidence related to DNA, fingerprints and cellphone data. They argued the DNA data was so “voluminous and technical” that it could take as long as six weeks for an expert to review.
“It is not my intention at this stage to issue a continuance” to delay the trial, Judge H. Patrick Haggard said during arguments and testimony that lasted nearly four hours.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Nov. 13, with the trial starting Nov. 18.
Haggard did not make an immediate ruling Friday regarding the DNA, fingerprint and cellphone evidence.
Ibarra, 26, sat shackled, wearing black dress pants and a blue-and-white button-up dress shirt. He did not address the court, wearing headphones to hear an English-to-Spanish translation, nodding each time his interpreter asked if the audio equipment was working and if he could hear and understand.
Members of Riley’s family, including mother Allyson Phillips and stepfather John Phillips, were in the courtroom.
Riley’s violent death in February became a flashpoint in the national debate over illegal immigration. Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, and two of his brothers entered the United States unlawfully in 2022 and 2023, says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They were taken into custody in Athens on Feb. 23.
The defense questioned the reliability of a fingerprint an expert identified as Ibarra’s thumbprint on Riley’s cellphone. It also questioned methods used to extract data from two cellphones police said belonged to Ibarra.
“There is no evidence that agents, law enforcement officers or anyone could search that phone prior” to a search warrant being issued, special prosecutor Sheila Ross said.
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.
Previous motions by the defense for a change of venue and to try the peeping tom charge separately were denied.
Ibarra remains held without bond at the Athens-Clarke County jail. The district attorney’s office filed paperwork in court in May indicating it will seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Riley’s body was discovered by police Feb. 22 in a wooded area, about 65 feet off a running trail, near the university’s intramural fields. She had gone for a jog that morning.
The state’s theory of what happened that day was outlined in previous court filings. Prosecutors said a UGA student called 911 just before 8 a.m. to report that someone had looked through her 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.
“That 911 call — the last outgoing call from Laken Riley’s cellular telephone — was disconnected by defendant Ibarra,” prosecutors said. “These incidents are connected by time, location, motive and items of evidence.”
It was the first homicide on the grounds of Georgia’s flagship public university in more than two decades. Ibarra was arrested the next day.
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