ATHENS, Ga. — The judge in the murder trial of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley warned the court about the graphic body camera footage that was about to be shown, with several people getting up and leaving the scene and family members watching. I urged them to cover it.
“Sorry to bother you,” Judge H. Patrick Haggard told prosecutor Sheila Ross as she tried to play a video taken at the scene where the 22-year-old jogger's body was found.
“I think what we're going to see is the victim's body,” Haggard said. “I suggest that anyone who is here please leave if they wish to do so. We will pause to allow them to do so.”
The judge said it would be “much more difficult” to see the evidence.
Ross later acknowledged that “a few people have left, but others insist on staying.”
Prosecutors said they warned them not to speak in court while the footage was played.
Riley's mother and several other Riley supporters filed out of the courtroom, and her stepfather could be seen covering his eyes as footage of the emotional trial was played.
The footage showed Sgt. Kenneth Maxwell of the University of Georgia Police Department found Riley's body after searching for her for about 20 minutes on a path beside the university's campus in Athens, Georgia.
Riley, who prosecutors say was beaten and suffocated to death by undocumented Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra, lay lifeless 50 feet off the trail with his shirt pulled up and his torso exposed. Maxwell testified.
“We found her! Ma'am, ma'am. Ma'am. We need EMS right away. Ma'am, ma'am, ma'am. She's down and not breathing!” Maxwell can be heard saying in the video. I can hear it.
Maxwell began trying to revive her with CPR and then said: She's tough. ”
“It appears to be blunt force trauma to the head,” the officer added.
