Jose Ibarra was charged with murder and other crimes in Riley’s February death in Georgia, and was sentenced Wednesday by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H Patrick Haggard.
Ibarra, 26, waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Haggard heard and decided the case himself.
Haggard found Ibarra guilty of all 10 counts of the indictment against him: one count of malicious murder; three counts of aggravated murder; and one count each of kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, interfering with an emergency call, tampering with evidence and watching Peeping Tom.
Riley’s family and friends tearfully remembered her and asked the judge to sentence Ibarra to the maximum sentence. Her mother called him a “monster” and her father a “truly evil person.”
Ibarra did not react as the translator relayed their words to him.
Before the verdict was announced, Haggard said that as he listened to closing arguments, he wrote down two things the attorneys said on a notepad. He noted that prosecutor Sheila Ross called the evidence “overwhelming and powerful” and that defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck reminded him that he “must put his emotions aside” when reaching a verdict.
Riley’s killing further fueled the national immigration debate when federal authorities said Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to remain in the country while pursuing his immigration case. But Ibarra’s immigration status was not mentioned during the trial.
“Sam Laken Riley gave you all the evidence you need” to find Ibarra guilty on all counts, Ross told the judge during closing arguments. She added that the physical evidence is sufficient and supported by forensic, digital and video evidence to “entangle this very powerful knot from which this defendant cannot extricate himself. There is no way out for him.”
The evidence shows that Ibarra killed Riley “because she wouldn’t let him rape her.”
Ross said Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails, and her and Ibarra’s DNA were found on a jacket police found in a trash can at his apartment complex. The man seen on security footage throwing the jacket was identified as Ibarra by his brother and another roommate, she said.
Riley was wearing “tight running clothes that were 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 up, evidence that her clothing had been moved by an attempted sexual assault rather than being pulled, Ross said.
Surveillance video shows a man wearing clothing that appears to match the one seen in a selfie Ibarra took with his phone earlier that morning, lingering outside the student’s apartment. 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 “wandering around outside hunting for females,” and when he couldn’t get into the apartment, he turned to the trails looking for the 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 open to more than one interpretation, it is not beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.
Beck tried to cast doubt on the DNA testing method used to test some of the evidence. She noted that when the fingerprint found on Riley’s phone was entered into the database, Ibarra did not come back as a match and that an expert visually matched the prints.
She said there was “suspicion based on what was tested and what was not tested” because investigators did not test some of the evidence they collected.
During witness questioning and in Beck’s closing arguments, defense attorneys tried to cast doubt on Jose Ibarra’s guilt by suggesting that his brother Diego could not be ruled out as a suspect.
The trial began Friday, and prosecutors called more than a dozen law enforcement officials, Riley’s roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra. Defense attorneys called a police officer, a runner and one of Ibarra’s neighbors Tuesday and wrapped up their case Wednesday morning.
Ross told the judge that Ibarra encountered Riley while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus on February 22 and killed her during the struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at the Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles east of Atlanta.
Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening remarks that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing. But he said there was insufficient evidence that his client killed Riley.
Riley’s parents, roommates and other friends and family packed the courtroom throughout the trial.