José Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Wednesday for killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who entered the U.S. illegally, had declined his right to a jury trial. Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard presided over the case, finding Ibarra guilty on all ten charges against him on Tuesday morning, including malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing a person making an emergency call, tampering with evidence, and violating Georgia’s peeping Tom statute. The prosecution did not seek the death penalty in this case.
After a break, Haggard listened to victim impact statements from Riley’s family and friends, who all urged him to issue a life sentence so Ibarra would never again go free. The prosecution played a clip of police body camera footage showing the devastating moment when Riley’s parents and sister were informed that she had been killed.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross then urged the judge to impose the maximum possible sentence for all charges, to be served consecutively — essentially a life sentence without parole — for the sake of Riley’s younger sister, Lauren Phillips.
“No matter what your sentence is today, and it will be litigated from here to 40 years from now, there is at least one person in this courtroom who will inherit it — and that is Lauren Phillips,” said Ross, adding:
She’s growing up without her sister. She’s going to have to deal with elderly parents alone. Her children won’t have an aunt. She is an only child, and she should not have to worry 30 years from now, 40 years from now, if he [Ibarra] comes up for parole, should he might get out…She should never have to worry about that, and your sentence can ensure that she will not have to worry about that.
Haggard issued his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to CNN, Riley’s family members and friends who were in court for the trial “appeared relieved” when the judge read his sentence.
Riley, age 22, went for a run the morning of February 22, 2024 on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia but did not return. Her body was found in a nearby park by UGA police, and the cause of death listed as blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. Evidence presented by prosecutors included Ibarra’s DNA under Riley’s fingernails, his fingerprint on the screen of her iPhone, and location data from both Riley and Ibarra’s cell phones. Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, also testified and identified José as the person seen in a surveillance video putting bloodied clothes in a dumpster.
The murder captured national media attention because of the horrific nature of the crime and Ibarra’s illegal status, including several previous run-ins with the law and releases from custody before he ended up in Georgia, becoming part of the debate about immigration and border security in this year’s election.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
