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Your roundup of the latest headlines from across the US

When 22-year-old Laken Riley never returned after taking a morning walk on the University of Georgia campus in February, her roommate became concerned and called campus police.

The nursing student’s slain body was found later that day in a wooded area behind Lake Herrick, near UGA’s intramural field on campus, according to University of Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey L. Clark. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The next day, Jose Ibarra, 26, who is not a U.S. citizen, was arrested and charged with murder in Riley’s death, a case that quickly became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.

Now, nine months later, Ibarra is on trial for his murder.

The 26-year-old’s trial was set to begin Nov. 13 with jury selection, but at a hearing a day earlier, he waived his right to a jury trial and requested a bench trial — where a judge determines the facts and makes a decision in the case — instead. His trial finally began on November 15.

During opening statements Friday, prosecutor Sheila Ross said Ibarra had been “chasing” women the day of the murder, but when he encountered Riley, she “fought” back. When she “refused to be a rape victim, he repeatedly smashed her skull with a rock.”

Defense attorney Dustin Kirby said in his opening statement that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case graphic and disturbing. But he said there is insufficient evidence to prove it was Ibarra and questioned how his fingerprints could be on the phone if he was probably wearing gloves.

“The evidence in this case is very strong that Laken Riley was murdered,” Kirby said. “The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Laken Riley is circumstantial.”

If convicted, Ibarra could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors said they will not seek the death penalty.

Here’s what we know so far about the case:

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Who Was Laken Hope Riley?

Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta University, which has a campus in Athens.

A native of Woodstock, Georgia, she graduated in 2020 from River Ridge High School, where she ran cross country and was a member of the track team, according to Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a statement issued at the time, Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Brian Hightower said, “Our community and our world lost a shining light with the tragic passing of Laken.

“Laken is an outstanding athlete and inspired classmates and teachers with her love of learning and her kindness to all. We ask the community to keep her family in their hearts.”

She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority at UGA and an avid runner who had completed the AthHalf Half Marathon in October 2023. In the fall of that year, she made the dean’s list at Augusta University.

Riley attended the University of Georgia until the spring of 2023 before transferring to Augusta University’s College of Nursing, according to a statement from the University of Georgia.

She remained active in the sorority she joined at the University of Georgia, according to Associated Press.

On the day she disappeared, she had been running on the intramural fields on the University of Georgia campus.

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Riley died of blunt force trauma in the attack. University police said there was no connection between her and Ibarra before her murder.

“This was a crime of opportunity where he saw an individual and bad things happened,” University of Georgia Police Chief Jeff Clark said at a press conference at that time.

Accusations of murder

Hours after Riley was killed, homicide detectives in Athens captured a surveillance camera photo of a potential suspect wearing a distinctive Adidas hat, according to a federal affidavit obtained by Associated Press.

That eventually led them to an off-campus apartment complex where they scoured the area and began piecing together details about Jose Antonio Ibarra.

Ibarra, 26, a Venezuelan national, was arrested and charged with one count of first degree murder, three counts of aggravated murder and one count of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, obstructing an emergency call, tampering with evidence and peeping on Tom.

Affidavits accused Ibarra of “disfiguring her skull” in support of the aggravated battery charge. The complaint also alleged that Ibarra used an object to injure her and dragged her body to a “secluded area.”

According to the indictment, on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra looked into the window of an apartment in a university house, which is the basis of the peeping Tom charge.

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Defense lawyers had tried unsuccessfully to have the trial moved out of Athens, to have the Peeping Tom charge heard separately, and to exclude certain evidence and expert testimony.

Prosecutors have chosen not to seek the death penalty, but are instead seeking life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Flashpoint on immigration

Ibarra had originally entered the United States illegally. He is a Venezuelan national who entered the United States in El Paso in September 2022.

Federal immigration officials said shortly after his arrest that Ibarra illegally entered the United States in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case.

In addition, ICE wrote in a statement that Ibarra had been arrested by New York Police Department on September 14, 2023 and “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child under the age of 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”

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The NYPD then released Ibarra “before a detainer could be issued,” the agency added. But an NYPD spokesman said The Independent at the time there was no arrest on record. ICE filed a detainer on Ibarra after his arrest.

Ibarra’s brother Diego Ibarra was initially arrested on suspicion of killing Riley because he matched the suspect’s description. Diego Ibarra was later charged with possession of a fake green card, according to 13WMAZ.

Immigration was already a major issue in the presidential campaign, and Republicans seized on Riley’s killing, with President-elect Donald Trump blaming Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death.