On Wednesday, 9 months after Laken Riley was discovered overwhelmed to demise on the College of Georgia Athens campus after going for a run, her assassin was sentenced to the utmost attainable sentence–life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. Twenty-six-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra was discovered responsible of malice homicide and 9 different counts, based on CNN.
Jose Ibarra, the person convicted of killing Georgia nursing scholar Laken Riley, has been sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. pic.twitter.com/ZQSfrHJXb5
— Every thing Georgia (@GAFollowers) November 20, 2024
On February 22, after roommates reported her lacking when she didn’t return from her morning run, college police situated Riley in a wooded space close to the college’s intramural fields, the place she was pronounced lifeless; the reason for demise was decided to be blunt drive trauma and asphyxia.
Riley, 22, was a cross-country runner whereas attending River Ridge Excessive Faculty in Woodstock, Ga., and competed in Georgia’s AthHalf Half Marathon in October 2023.
Girl discovered lifeless after going for a run on the College of Georgia campus
Through the four-day trial, the prosecution said that Riley suffered eight wounds to her head alongside a depressed cranium fracture, allegedly attributable to 26-year-old Ibarra hitting her within the head with a rock. Ibarra’s DNA was found beneath Riley’s fingernails and on a jacket that Ibarra had tried to discard after the assault. Riley’s DNA was additionally discovered on the identical jacket.
Information from Riley’s smartwatch confirmed that her run got here to a halt round 9:10 a.m., across the time when she used the SOS operate on her smartphone to name 911; a couple of minutes later, the placement of the watch moved off the path and into the woods. Her coronary heart stopped at 9:28 a.m. Her physique was discovered with a number of layers of clothes eliminated, indicating an intent to sexually assault.
Ibarra was convicted of malice homicide, three counts of felony homicide, kidnapping with bodily harm, aggravated assault with try and rape, aggravated battery, obstructing an individual making an emergency name and tampering with proof. He was additionally discovered responsible of a peeping Tom cost from a separate incident the place he peered into one other scholar’s residence and tried repeatedly to open her door.