Lawyers for man accused of killing Georgia nursing student ask judge to move trial

ATHENS, Georgia – Lawyers for a man accused of killing a nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus asked a judge to transfer the case to another county.

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

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

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

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

A 2013 Georgia court ruling concluded that a change of venue is appropriate in cases where media coverage is “‘unduly extensive, factually incorrect, inflammatory or reflects an atmosphere of hostility,'” according to the document.

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

He declared himself innocent in May.

The murder immediately became a critical point in the national debate on immigration because Ibarra, who is Venezuelan, entered the US illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have blamed Riley’s death on President Joe Biden and his border policies.

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

The indictment charges Ibarra with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree murder, and one count of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated assault, impeding an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence, and spying on Tom.

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

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