ATHENS — Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student killed on the University of Georgia campus in February, put up a “fierce” fight for her life when she was attacked while out for her usual morning jog, prosecutors said Friday in opening statements in the trial of the man accused of killing her.
Riley scratched and clawed her killer, said the state’s special prosecutor, Sheila Ross, adding that evidence would show that the DNA under her fingernails belonged to defendant Jose Ibarra.
“Laken fought. She fought for her life,” Ross said. “She fought for her dignity. In that fight, she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind. She also marked her killer for the entire world to see.”
Ibarra, 26, 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 an allegation that he peeped into a female UGA student’s window and tried to break in the same morning.
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.
In his nine-minute opening statement, defense attorney Dustin Kirby challenged the credibility and reliability of the state’s evidence.
“The evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered,” Kirby said. “The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Laken Riley is circumstantial. The evidence that anyone had any intent or committed sexual assault is speculation.”
Ross called several witnesses to lay out a timeline of the morning that Riley was killed. The nursing student, who lived with three roommates, left for her run just around 9:03 a.m. on Feb. 22, footage from her security camera showed. According to a Garmin watch she was wearing, she was running at a quick pace and then suddenly stopped sometime between 9:05 a.m. and 9:10 a.m.
At 9:11 a.m., she called 911. But, when a dispatcher asked what the emergency was, no one spoke. Only rustling could be heard. Police have accused Ibarra of interrupting that call.
Ross said Riley put up a fight before succumbing to blunt force trauma to her head and asphyxiation. The Garmin watch showed her heartbeat stopped registering at 9:28 a.m.
Riley’s roommates took the witness stand to testify that they became increasingly concerned about her when she hadn’t returned home from her run, didn’t answer phone calls and an app continued to show that she was on the trails near the university’s intramural fields. Her family members were also worried because they couldn’t reach the normally punctual Riley.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
When roommate Sofia Magana went to the trail and found what she suspected was an AirPod that belonged to Riley, she feared for her welfare. The roommates called University of Georgia police.
Police met the roommates at a parking deck close to the trail. Sgt. Kenneth Maxwell and another officer began their search around 12:20 p.m. “At that point, we still didn’t know what we were dealing with,” the officer testified.
About 13 minutes later, Maxwell, wearing a body camera, spotted Riley about 65 feet off the trail. “University, I found her!” he relayed back to the station.
“Ma’am, ma’am!” he yelled as he checked on Riley, who was partially covered with leaves and vegetation.
“She’s down. She’s not breathing. Starting CPR now,” he told the station. “I’m not getting a pulse. She’s stiff.”
Maxwell and another officer worked frantically to resuscitate Riley, alternating performing CPR until EMS arrived.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
During Maxwell’s testimony and the playing of bodycam footage, Ibarra watched the video at times and other times looked down. The victim’s mother, Allyson Phillips, left the courtroom before the video showing Riley’s body was played. Other members of Riley’s family, including her father, Jason Riley, and stepdad, John Phillips, remained.
Much of Friday’s testimony centered around the forensic evidence recovered Feb. 22.
Police testified that, after Riley was found, they checked dumpsters in the area, looking for discarded evidence. In one of them, they found a dark blue jacket.
Police said it had hair on the buttons, ripped up sleeves and was stained with blood.
As officers looked around, one of them noticed a security camera trained on the dumpster, according to testimony. They obtained footage that showed, at 9:44 a.m., a man police later said was Ibarra discarded a jacket into a dumpster.
The dumpster, the sixth one officers searched, was located near Ibarra’s apartment, 150 yards from where the Peeping Tom incident took place two hours before Riley was attacked and roughly 450 yards from where Riley’s body was discovered.
Testimony in the trial will resume Monday.
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