The illegal immigrant accused of killing Augusta University student Laken Riley pleaded not guilty at his arraignment hearing Friday.
Jose Ibarra, 26, is charged with 10 counts of assault and battery for allegedly striking and killing 22-year-old nursing student Riley as she was running on a dirt road on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens on Feb. 22.
According to a Fox News reporter at the scene, Riley’s mother, Allison Phillips, began to cry as she arrived at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Friday, where the judge said the case will be heard in August and is expected to go to trial by the fall.
The grand jury indicted Ibarra on charges of malice murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to commit rape, two counts of aggravated assault, obstructing or interfering with a 911 call, tampering with evidence and being a “voyeur.”
Suspect indicted in Laken Riley murder case
University of Georgia murder suspect Jose Ibarra lived within about a five-minute walk of the scene where he allegedly killed 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on Feb. 22. (Mark Sims/Laken Riley/Jose Ibarra for Fox News Digital)
According to the indictment, Ibarra allegedly inflicted blunt force trauma on Riley’s head and “asphyxiated her in a manner unknown to the jury,” causing her death.
According to the indictment, the suspect also went to an apartment in the University of Georgia’s “University Village Housing Building ‘S'” and “spied” on university employees by “peeking” through a window on the same day he allegedly killed Riley.
Laken Riley’s father says suspect ‘may not have been here’ if border was secure
Jose Ibarra was filmed moments before entering a not guilty plea on Friday, May 31st.
Ibarra, who lived in an apartment on the edge of the campus park where Riley was running, is suspected of killing the aspiring nurse in what University of Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described as a “crime of opportunity.”
The scenic route Riley ran that morning is easily accessible from the back of Ibarra’s apartment, and it’s a five-minute walk from his front door to the area where Riley was found dead.
Laken Riley’s mother, Allison Phillips, and stepfather, John Phillips, arrive at Clark County Superior Court in Athens on Friday, May 31. (Fox News)
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Ibarra, a native of Venezuela, entered the United States illegally through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. on parole, ICE and Department of Homeland Security sources previously told Fox News.
Fox News’ Chelsea Torres and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
