The illegal alien convicted of killing nursing student Laken Riley is seeking a new trial — evoking an uncomfortable flashback to the brutal homicide that helped drive the illegal immigration debate and led to a federal law named after his victim.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan, is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was set to appear Friday in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court in Georgia, where post-conviction attorneys will present arguments requesting a new trial.
Judge Patrick Haggard, who handled the original case and sentenced Ibarra, will hear the motion. Such a motion is typically the start of a process of appeals made by appellate lawyers before petitioning higher courts.
Ibarra, 26, was found guilty on all 10 counts in November 2024 for the February killing that year of Riley, 22, who was attacked during a morning run on the University of Georgia campus.
Prosecutors argued in his homicide trial that Riley died during a violent struggle with Ibarra. A medical examiner testified that her killer had smashed the nursing student’s head with a rock as well as inflicted multiple injuries across her head, neck, torso, and limbs as she desperately tried fight him off.
Riley was a student at Augusta University’s College of Nursing at its campus in Athens, about 70 miles east of Atlanta.
According to Fox News:
Ibarra’s legal team has already obtained a mental evaluation as part of the appeals process, claiming he was not competent to stand trial. Friday’s hearing focuses on whether alleged errors during the original proceedings justify a new trial.
Media outlets have also been instructed not to show Ibarra entering or exiting the courtroom or appearing in shackles or handcuffs during Friday’s hearing.
Breitbart News reported that Ibarra entered the United States near El Paso, Texas, in September of 2022 during the massive border incursion of illegal entries during the Biden administration and later moved to Georgia.
After being apprehended by federal immigration officials, he was paroled and released for further processing, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) records.
Critics of the Biden administration’s permissive policies regarding illegal alien criminals said Riley’s killer should have been deported long before he attacked her on her morning jog.
According to a November 2024 report in the Independent:
The agency also said that Ibarra had been arrested by the New York Police Department on September 14, 2023 and was “charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.”
New York officials then released him “before a detainer could be issued,” ICE said. However, the NYPD told The Independent that the department has no record of Ibarra’s arrest on file – and so could not confirm whether this account was correct.
Despite the run-in with law enforcement, the Venezuelan national was allowed to remain in the U.S. while his immigration case was pending.
Riley’s murder became a go-to case with conservative commentators and during Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign provided a moving example of illegal immigration’s connection with violent crime — and the consequences of lax border policies.
Last year, President Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act , which requires the detention of illegal aliens accused of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting.
The bill also authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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