Electronic location data appears to link Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the man suspected of killing her in the same wooded area at the time of her death, according to testimony given by an FBI special agent on Monday.
Mishap with Laken Riley and the suspect Jose Ibarra
Prosecutors also presented a tape of Ibarra’s wife interrogating him about the case over the phone while he was in jail.
Laken Riley died in February, and Jose Ibarra, 26, is accused of murder and other offenses. Since he gave up his right to a jury trial, Judge H. Patrick Haggard of the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court is hearing the case and will be the only one to determine whether Ibarra is guilty or innocent.
When federal authorities said that Jose Ibarra had entered the country illegally in 2022 and had been permitted to remain while he worked on his immigration case, the murder of the 22-year-old woman fueled the national immigration debate during this year’s presidential race.
On Monday, FBI Special Agent James Burnie said in court that he examined location information from Riley’s smartphone and smart watch as well as Ibarra’s cellphone. Riley’s watch’s GPS data pinpoints her whereabouts within the wooded region with jogging paths where her body was discovered on February 22.
According to Burnie, Ibarra was probably in the woods at the time because his phone was not connecting to any Wi-Fi networks and there were pings between it and cell towers.
Audio conversation between Jose Ibarra and his wife
An audio of a May jail phone conversation between Jose Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, was also played by the prosecution. Ibarra told Franco that he had been at the University of Georgia looking for job, and that his wife had constantly expressed her frustration and her desire for him to reveal the truth, according to FBI specialist Abeisis Ramirez, who translated the call from Spanish.
Three counts of felony murder, one count of malice murder, one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated violence, obstructing an emergency phone call, tampering with evidence, and being a peeping Tom are among the charges against Ibarra.
The security footage in the apartment seized a man tossing something into a trash. There was a lot of clothing in the one-room apartment, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime scene specialist who testified that she did not discover that shirt or other bloody apparel there.
Bello stated in her interpreter-assisted testimony that she first met Ibarra in Queens, New York. Diego, Ibarra’s brother, had been pushing Ibarra to relocate to Athens, where they would find employment.
Ibarra took her with him to Georgia to go to his brother. In September 2023, she said, they went to the Roosevelt Hotel, which was a migrant processing facility, to request a “humanitarian flight” to Georgia. Diego Ibarra’s buddy picked them up after they were given to Atlanta and took them to Athens.
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