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FIRST ON FOX – Georgia prosecutors have opposed Laken Riley murder suspect Jose Ibarra’s request to unseal certain evidence from his case, alleging that distinctive items such as a blood-stained jacket, gloves and a fingerprint link him to the brutal crime.
Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of attacking and killing Riley, 22, while she went for a run on a dirt path. University of Georgia Campus in Athens Morning of 22nd February.
Last month, Ibarra asked an Athens-Clarke County court for a hearing to suppress a list of evidentiary items, including cellphones, buccal swabs and social media accounts, arguing that those items were illegally collected by law enforcement, and that detectives entered his residence without a search warrant.
Prosecutors say law enforcement agencies entered Ibarra’s Athens apartment near UGA’s campus — which he shared with his two brothers, who were living in the United States illegally from Venezuela — because they feared the four people inside the apartment less than 12 hours after Riley’s murder “might destroy evidence,” according to court documents filed this week.
Jose Ibarra appears in court for a status hearing in the Laken Riley murder case. (Vaga)
“The State expects the evidence will show that, immediately following the murder of Laquan Riley, local law enforcement officers were searching for a person or persons depicted in two separate videos. One video was taken in and near University Village Housing Building ‘S’, which was associated with the Peeping Tom incident,” prosecutors wrote. “The second video was taken in a dumpster at an apartment complex that is adjacent to UGA property and less than a half-mile from the site of Laquan Riley’s murder.”
Ibarra was indicted by a Georgia grand jury in May on charges of malice murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated assault, preventing or obstructing a person from calling 911, tampering with evidence and “peeping.”
Laken Riley murder suspect charged
Laken Riley poses for a photo posted on Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on February 22. An illegal immigrant has been charged with her murder. (Laken Riley/Facebook)
The indictment states the suspect is accused of causing Riley’s death by inflicting blunt force trauma to the head and “suffocating him in a manner unknown to jurors.” He is also accused of driving her to a hospital. UGA’s on-campus residencesThe indictment alleges that on the day he killed Riley, he “spied” on a university employee by “peeking” through a window.
Prosecutors say the video showing a man near a trash can at Ibarra’s apartment complex near UGA is clear and “depicts a Latino male with long dark hair discarding a bloody jacket and bloody gloves less than 30 minutes after the murder of Laken Riley and about a half-mile from his body.”
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Jose Ibarra was arrested on February 23 in connection with the February 22 murder of Laquan Riley in Athens, Georgia. (Clark County Sheriff’s Office)
“The dumpster video also shows the Latino male was wearing a black baseball cap with a white Adidas logo, white script underneath the logo, and a sticker on the bill of the cap,” prosecutors said.
Less than 12 hours after the man was seen in the video discarding the blood-stained jacket and gloves, a sergeant with the Athens-Clarke County Sheriff’s Office was patrolling Ibarra’s apartment complex and “observed a Latino male wearing a ‘similar’ hat to the one seen in the dumpster video, walking around the apartment complex in public, in clear, daylight.”
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An exterior view of Jose Antonio Ibarra’s apartment in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Ibarra is accused of murdering Laken Riley after she was found dead along a walkway on the University of Georgia campus. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
The officer began talking to the man wearing the hat, who identified himself as Diego Ibarra, the older brother of Jose Ibarra, who had shown the officer a fake green card. The sergeant detained Diego until another officer, who was fluent in Spanish, arrived to speak to Diego.
At that time, officers determined “there was probable cause to believe that evidence of the crime of murder may be located inside the apartment and decided that it was necessary for them to secure the apartment pending the application for a search warrant for fear of additional destruction of evidence. This decision was reasonable and did not violate the Fourth Amendment,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
WATCH: Georgia investigators search trash cans near Laquan Riley murder site
Prosecutors added, “Asking the officers in this case to remain outside the defendant’s apartment while unidentified individuals inside continued to destroy evidence of the murder, even after officers had obtained a search warrant, would have been contrary to common sense and clearly improper.”
They are also arguing against Jose Ibarra’s request to exclude the testimony of a witness who performed DNA testing during Riley’s autopsy, alleging that the results “did not exclude the defendant, but also did not exclude any other known individuals connected to the case.”
An exterior view of Jose Antonio Ibarra’s apartment in Athens, Georgia, on Saturday, February 24, 2024. Ibarra is accused of murdering Laken Riley after she was found dead along a walkway on the University of Georgia campus. (Mark Sims for Fox News Digital)
Prosecutors say the DNA evidence in Jose Ibarra’s case “comes from critical and relevant evidence, such as: Laken Riley’s fingernails, the discarded bloody glove, the black Adidas baseball cap, and the blue ‘hoodie’ style jacket and all report a matching figure that would assist the jury in determining the defendant’s guilt or innocence for the crimes charged in the indictment.”
Additionally, detectives clearly identified “thumbprints on Laken Riley’s mobile phone” as belonging to Jose Ibarra.
Laken Riley smiles as she poses for a photo while running. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Instagram)
The 26-year-old suspect had entered the US illegally. El Paso, Texas, He was released to the US via parole in September 2022, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News. His older brother, Diego Ibarra, is accused of green card fraud and had ties to a well-known Venezuelan gang in the US, according to federal court documents.
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UGA said in a statement released in February after Riley’s death that the school “invested $16 million over the past eight years to hire more police officers, install more security cameras, enhance lighting, establish a nighttime rideshare program and create the UGASafe app.”
Since February, the school has spent more than $7.3 million on increased security measures, including a 20% increase to UGA’s police budget, emergency blue lights, and a university-focused rideshare program.
Ibarra’s trial It is going to happen in November.
