Laken Riley murder: State expected to rest case in Jose Ibarra trial

ATHENS, Ga. - The state is expected to rest their case on Tuesday after multiple days of testimony in the trial of Jose Ibarra, the man accused of murdering nursing student Laken Riley on the campus of the University of Georgia.

Ibarra, 26, is charged with murder, kidnapping, and other crimes in connection with Riley's death in February. He has waived his right to a jury trial, meaning Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard will be the one to rule in the case.

Prosecutors have argued that Ibarra went "hunting for females" on campus before attacking a killing Riley while she was out on a run on the morning of Feb. 22. Ibarra's defense has called the evidence that Ibarra killed the 22-year-old nursing student "circumstantial."   

Ibarra has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Previous testimony in the Jose Ibarra murder trial

In court on Monday, an FBI agent testified that Ibarra took selfies of himself early on the day Riley was killed. In the photos, Ibarra is wearing a black Adidas baseball cap and a dark hooded jacket.

A few hours before Riley's murder, a man in a black Adidas baseball cap was captured on surveillance video at the door of a first-floor apartment in a University of Georgia housing complex. A female graduate student who lived there testified Monday that she heard her doorknob jiggling while she was in the shower. As she looked through the peephole, the person ducked and walked away, but then she saw the same person peering into her window, she said.

Police officers, using a grainy screenshot from the surveillance video, approached a man wearing a black Adidas cap the day after the killing. That turned out to be Diego Ibarra, one of Jose Ibarra’s brothers.

After the two brothers were found and questioned, University of Georgia Police Officer Joshua Epps testified that he observed recent scratches on Jose Ibarra’s arms but none on Diego’s. Epps also noted dirt on Diego’s hat, which he said could have been transferred from Riley’s body.

When asked why his knuckles were red, Jose Ibarra told them it was because of the cold but didn’t really explain the scratches on his arms, one of the officers who helped with questioning the brothers said.

One of the Ibarra brothers' former roommates also took the stand Monday and testified how the two frequently shared clothing. He positively identified the man in one of the surveillance videos as Jose.

Flores Bello, another witness, also identified the man in the video by the dumpster as Jose Ibarra. She also said she had previously seen him wearing the dark hooded jacket and thought it was strange he was throwing it away.

Jail phone call played in court

Laken Riley

Prosecutors also played a recording of a jail phone call from May between Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco. FBI specialist Abeisis Ramirez, who translated the call from Spanish, testified that Ibarra told Franco that he had been at the University of Georgia looking for work, and that his wife repeatedly said she was fed up and that she wanted him to tell the truth.

Franco "continues to ask, ‘What happened with the girl?’" and said Ibarra "must know something," Ramirez said. He responds: "Layling, enough." Ramirez said Franco told Ibarra that it’s crazy that police only found his DNA.

Ibarra is charged with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping Tom.