A Venezuelan immigrant accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Friday.
Jose Ibarra, 26, who entered the United States illegally across the southern border, is accused of murdering a 22-year-old woman by inflicting blunt force trauma to the head and “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to the jury.”
In addition to the 10 charges related to Riley’s murder, Ibarra faces an additional charge of peeping at a University of Georgia employee on the day of the murder.
Riley’s mother, Allison Phillips, was in court on Friday and was seen sobbing as Ibarra entered the courtroom, Fox News reported.
Ibarra lived near the University of Georgia and is suspected of killing Riley while he was running on the nearby campus.
Police said the body of the aspiring nurse was found about five minutes away from Ibarra’s apartment.
University of Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey Clark called the incident a “crime of opportunity.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Ibarra entered the U.S. illegally through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 but was released about a day after being detained.
The Venezuelan national then traveled to New York City, where he was staying in a city-provided shelter and posted pictures of himself smiling at Big Apple landmarks.
Months before he allegedly killed Riley, Ibarra was arrested on child endangerment charges while in New York.
Ibarra was charged with a felony and released.
He then left New York for Athens, Georgia, where his brother Diego Ibarra lived.
Diego Ibarra was arrested on the same day as his brother and lived in the same house. He was charged with green card fraud after presenting a fake permanent resident card to police officers. He has also been linked to the Venezuelan gang El Tren de Aragua.
Jose Ibarra was also listed as a member of a vicious Venezuelan prison gang in internal Department of Homeland Security documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
