Laken Riley Murder Trial: Jose Ibarra Found Guilty of Killing Georgia Nursing Student

U.S.|Migrant Gets Life Sentence for Killing Laken Riley in Case Seized On by Trump

A 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela was convicted on Wednesday of murdering Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student whose killing has been repeatedly cited by President-elect Donald J. Trump in his push for the mass deportation of millions of undocumented people.

Ms. Riley, 22, was attacked in February while running on a trail on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. A day later, the authorities charged Jose Antonio Ibarra, a migrant who had entered the country illegally, in connection with the killing.

Judge H. Patrick Haggard of State Superior Court in Athens-Clarke County found Mr. Ibarra guilty within minutes of lawyers concluding their arguments. He sentenced Mr. Ibarra to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a bench trial that included four days of arguments and testimony.

The judge, rather than a jury, decided the case at the request of Mr. Ibarra’s lawyers after they tried unsuccessfully to move the case out of Athens. On Wednesday, lawyers for Mr. Ibarra said that their decision to seek a bench trial was based on concerns that a jury in Athens could not review the evidence dispassionately.

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For months, Ms. Riley’s name had been invoked by conservatives, who argued that her death had been the result of a failure by the Biden administration to secure the nation’s borders. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump called Mr. Ibarra a “monster.” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, heckled President Biden about the case during his State of the Union address, goading him into addressing it.

In a post on social media on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump wrote in part, “We love you, Laken, and our hearts will always be with you. It is time to secure our border, and remove these criminals and thugs from our country, so nothing like this can happen again!”