Attorneys for man charged with killing Georgia nursing student ask judge to move trial

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys for a man accused of killing a nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus have asked a judge to move the case to another county.

Finding an impartial jury in Athens-Clarke County to consider the murder and other charges against Jose Ibarra for the killing of Laken Hope Riley is impossible, attorneys John Donnelly and Kaitlyn Beck said in a court filing. A shackled Ibarra appeared in court on Friday dressed in a button-front shirt and slacks.

Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard said during the brief hearing that he was planning to start jury selection on Nov. 13 and then proceed with the trial the following week.

He gave prosecutors 10 days to respond to the request for a change of venue, which was filed on Thursday.

In the filing, Donnelly and Beck noted Riley was killed on the campus of the University of Georgia, a “prominent institution” in Athens, and said the case had received extensive media coverage locally.

A 2013 Georgia court decision found that a change of venue is proper in cases where media coverage is “‘unduly extensive, factually incorrect, inflammatory, or reflective of an atmosphere of hostility,'” according to the filing.

A grand jury in early May returned an indictment charging Ibarra, 26, with murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping and other crimes in the February killing of Riley. The 10-count indictment accuses him of hitting the 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student in the head, asphyxiating her and pulling up her clothing with the intent to rape her.

He pleaded not guilty in May.

The killing immediately became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration because Ibarra, who is from Venezuela, entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, blamed Riley’s death on President Joe Biden and his border policies.

Riley’s body was found Feb. 22 near running trails after a friend told police she had not returned from a morning run, and police have said her killing appeared to be a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and has been held in the Athens-Clarke County Jail without bond since then.

The indictment charges Ibarra 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 peeping Tom.

The indictment says that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra had peered into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.

In a separate filing on Thursday, Ibarra’s attorneys said that charge should be tried separately from the others because the alleged victim is different.

Sudhin Thanawala, The Associated Press