Laken Riley murder: Illegal immigrant suspect's trial begins after last-minute legal maneuver

Jose Ibarra, the suspect charged in Augusta University student Laken Riley's February murder on the University of Georgia campus, is set to appear in court Friday for the start of his trial.

Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging along trails near Lake Herrick on UGA's campus the morning of Feb. 22.

On Tuesday, Athens-Clarke County Judge Patrick Haggard granted Ibarra's request for a bench trial over a jury trial, meaning evidence will be presented in court only to Haggard rather than before a selected jury.

"He's fast-tracking himself to life without parole by doing this," Georgia-based criminal defense attorney Philip Holloway previously told Fox News Digital. "It certainly will speed things up."

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Jose Ibarra appears in court for a motion hearing on Oct. 11, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson/Pool)

Evidence that will be presented during Ibarra's trial includes fingerprints, DNA, cellphone data, as well as a jacket and gloves recovered from a dumpster outside Ibarra's apartment complex and a "peeping Tom" incident reported on UGA's campus the same morning Riley was killed.

Ibarra and his brothers, also in the United States illegally from Venezuela, lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running.

Ibarra allegedly murdered the aspiring nurse in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described as a "crime of opportunity."

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Laken Riley smiles for a photo while running. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Feb. 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Instagram)

In May, a Georgia grand jury indicted Ibarra on counts of malice murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated battery, obstructing or hindering a person from making a 911 call, tampering with evidence and being a "peeping Tom."

The peeping Tom charge stems from another Feb. 22 incident in which the suspect allegedly went to a residence on UGA's campus in Athens and "peeped through" a window and "spied upon" a university staff member, according to the indictment.

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Jose Ibarra appears in court for a pretrial evidence hearing in Athens, Ga., on Nov. 1, 2024. (Robin Rayne for Fox News Digital)

Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News.

His older brother, Diego Ibarra, who worked briefly in a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S. called Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.

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ICE previously confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jose Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department a year after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and was "charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation."

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.