Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Nursing Student Laken Riley beaten viciously, skull crushed: SUSPECT MAKES DEMANDS

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

Jose Ibarra is indicted on nine felony counts and one misdemeanor. The misdemeanor charge is for interfering with a call for emergency help. The felony charges include malice murder, three felony murder charges, kidnapping, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, tampering with evidence and peeping tom. Unlike many states, Georgia doesn't have degrees of murder. Malice murder requires intent, while felony murder has a lower burden of proof and does not require intent to kill. Ibarra has pleaded not guilty to the charges The defense for Jose Ibarra aims to challenge the evidence prosecutors plan to use at trial and have filed motions attempting to incriminate evidence that was seized through a search warrant at Ibarra's home. The defense is also challenging DNA and fingerprint evidence that the prosecution says will prove Jose Ibarra murdered Laken Riley. Hearing the motions in the Clarke County Courthouse, Judge Patrick Haggard, will have to make his rulings before the case goes to trial in mid-November.  The judge has set another hearing for November first where the defense is challenging critical fingerprint identification, DNA, and social media evidence.  Defense Attorney Dustin Kirby tells the judge he needs more time to study the DNA data he recently received. Joining Nancy Grace today:  Andrew Stoltmann  - Chicago Attorney and adjunct law professor for Northwestern University, co-author, "Waging War on Wall Street: My Battles Suing Banks and Brokerage Firms;' X: @Stoltmann1971 Dr. Chloe Carmichael – Clinical Psychologist, Women’s Health Magazine Advisory Board;’ Author: ‘Nervous Energy: Harness The Power of Your Anxiety;’ X: @DrChloe Chris McDonough  – Director at the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective; Host of YouTube channel: “The Interview Room” Sheryl McCollum – Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder & Host of New Podcast: “Zone 7;” X: @149Zone Joe Scott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet,” and Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” Twitter/X: @JoScottForensic Jason Dennis – Anchor: WTVM News leader 9 and WXTX; Facebook: Jason Dennis WTVM/Instagram: @jdennistv/X: @JasonDennisWTVM See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A beautiful young nursing student, Laken Riley, just 22 years old, beaten so viciously, her skull is actually disfigured. Tonight, the suspect makes demands. Yes, the suspect makes demands. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

A young nursing student goes for her routine morning jog around campus, but never returns. It's so hard to imagine that this beautiful, young nursing student, dedicating her life to helping others, in the prime of her life, just 22 years old, goes out for a jog and then ends up beaten so viciously her skull is disfigured. What more do we know? Listen. She was found right next to a lake next to the intramural fields and my son is a sophomore at the University of Georgia. He actually parks there at the intramural fields and so around this lake is a pretty normal place for students, for people in the community of Athens, Georgia to run around. And this was on a Thursday morning, you know, right in the middle of the week, nice weather there at Lake Herrick. And as the UGA police

chief was talking about, and he says he called this a crime of opportunity. So she went there running, we assume, by herself. You're hearing our friend, anchor, investigative reporter Jason Dennis, WTVM and WXTX. Why is it that there is an epidemic of young female joggers ending up dead? What about Molly Tibbetts? Do you remember that name? I do. I'll never forget it. Listen. College student Molly Tibbetts goes out for a jog in Brooklyn, Iowa. Police say on a country road, Christian Rivera sees Molly Tibbetts out for her run, gets out of his car, and runs alongside Molly. Okay, what about Eliza Fletcher in Memphis? Remember that name? Just after 4 a.m., Eliza Fletcher is off on her regular early morning jog. The married mother of two, kindergarten teacher, is an avid runner with times good enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

When Fletcher doesn't return home from her run, panic sets in. Her husband calls police. Surveillance video shows around 4.30 a.m. while she jogs. She's approached by someone who forces her into a dark colored suv and drives off joining me from the field cheryl mccullum founder of the cold case research institute forensic expert and star of zone 7 cheryl mccullum does it never end lake and riley minding her own business trying to become a nurse like the nurse that saved my twins lives in NICU.

She can't even take a job on a campus where you think everything is safe. Her skull is bashed in. And tonight the suspect, the chief suspect, is making his own demands. But can we get back to the epidemic of attacks on female joggers? Nancy, it seems to be part of the plan to attack these folks while they're jogging at the end of a jog, meaning they're tired, they're fatigued. They're not going to be able to put up a fight like they would if they had not already been exercising. If you look at where Lakeland Riley ended up, that's at the top of a major hill. So she was quite possibly extremely fatigued, even though we know she did fight back. Well, Cheryl, I disagree completely.

You say this is part of a plan, which means a thought out plan. I think they're no better than a predator, an animal. To Joseph Scott Morgan joining me, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, star of a hit series, Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan. It goes on and on and on and on. He's a death investigator. OK, he's handled over 10,000 death investigations, just like Sheryl McCollum on the street every day is a forensic expert. These are not just talking heads.

They know what they're talking about like the rest of our panel. Joe Scott, I don't think this is part of a plan. He's going to think, oh, okay, I'll let her run 25 minutes. Then I'll try to rape her and beat her skull in. This is no better than a hyena on the Serengeti waiting for the gazelle to go to the watering hole. He attacks. No thought to it. Just like an animal, Joe Scott. I think that going to this kind of animalistic perspective, I think that the reality is, is that it's almost at a primal level where they're seeking, they're hungry. And in his case, he could only be satisfied by attacking. And so that's going to be the planning that goes in. And it's an opportunity, you know, the chief

had mentioned that this is a crime of opportunity. And so he would have been familiar with this area where he could track this poor young lady and watch for that opportunity. He's familiar with the landscape, the topography that Mac just mentioned relative to the grade out there moving about. And where can you be secluded? So there has to be a few points to these elements that are involved so that he can successfully get away with this. And he almost did, Nancy. Animals, complete animals. And, you know, back to you, Cheryl McCollum, longtime colleague and the director

of the Cold Case Research Institute, you know where I was this entire weekend, this past weekend, I was out looking at colleges and universities for my children, John David and Lucy Lynch. And every place that Lucy liked, she's just a tiny little bitty thing. All I could think about, I'd look down each alleyway and each walkway and they'd be beautiful with live oaks and blah, blah, blah. All I could think about is Lake and Riley and my girl. I mean, what do we have to do to stop people like this guy? One of the main things that stuck out for me when I walked to this scene and you sent me to Athens was Lakeland did everything right. And so did her roommate.

It was broad daylight. There were people all around. She parked at a known place for the band practices. She was not alone there even when I was there days after this murder there were people jogging and hiking and in kayaks in the pond and lake this was not a place that was secluded and way off the beaten path where she took a great risk there was only a small portion of this entire place where you were, you know, had woods all around you and where he could drag her off of the pathway there into the woods. And as the crow flies, if you are where her body was found, it is a straight shot to his apartment.

And I'm going to tell you again, he picked this spot. He knew somebody, some unsuspecting victim was going to come. Oh, please. You're giving him so much credit. It's total BS. He didn't pick anything. He probably waited until she was near some trees, put no more thought into it than that hyena out on the Serengeti. And then tried to rape her and beat her skull in. To you, you know, Andrew Stoltman

joining us, high profile Chicago lawyer. He's an adjunct law professor at Northwestern. That's not shabby. You know how hard it is to get into Northwestern University? Co-author of the book Waging War on Wall Street. Okay, I respect that. But you go on and get after those white collar criminals. Can we talk about a human hyena right now? I'm sure you have experience in criminal law as well. I've read your resume very carefully. How is it the prime suspect

after what we know happened to Lakin? Can you imagine the roommate calling her parents? Have you talked to Lakin and that feeling the mom and dad must have gotten where they're like, no. And now he jumps up in court and is making demands about having evidence thrown out. Do you ever just just want to shoot your foot when you're sitting in court listening to this? If I could get my hands around his neck, I'd end up on the Nancy Grace show. OK, Andrew Stoltman, why does he think he can make demands like throwing out evidence? Well, I think he's seen it done successfully in other cases.

I mean, think about it, Nancy. How will the defendant get around the fact that his DNA was found underneath the victim's nails, right? That's cataclysmic to the case. So he has to try to get this information out because if he doesn't, he's going to spend a very long time, the rest of his life in prison. And by the way, I still can't figure out why the prosecutors aren't pursuing the death penalty in this case. Because if any reprobate, if any degenerate deserves it, it's this guy. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace You know, I want to talk about the way that her body was found, but let me go along chronologically. So the roommate realizes Lakin didn't come back from jogging.

She starts making calls. Where's Lakin? Where's Lakin? Lakin's not answering her cell phone. Now listen to this. There was a jacket. And what is the significance of the jacket? Why were you, why did you believe it was related to the murder? Because I never saw the jacket myself, but I was told by other law enforcement officials that there was blood and I believe hair on the jacket. What type of hair? Lakin's hair. Lakin's hair on a jacket. So immediately Cheryl McCollum, all the investigators start retracing her steps, trying to figure out where she was. Then they look in a dumpster. Thank heaven. And yes, that's SOP to look in dumpsters. I looked in plenty of them and it stinks. It's horrible conditions.

Yet again, you have to get in there and dig through everything. But they were rewarded when they find a jacket with hair on it that turns out to be Lakin's jacket. That dumpster yielded evidence. Cheryl McCollum. It was brilliant, Nancy. From the moment she reported missing at 12.07, they find her by 12.38. That's telling you how seriously law enforcement took this when they got to that dumpster and got in it and found the jacket with the blood and the hair, that's going to connect that person from that jacket to Lakeland. Then they also have her cell phone. You mentioned earlier, she attempted to call 911. That's going to be real time stamp too. So now you're starting to build this case. You're starting to connect these dots that are going to be extremely important for trial. Joining me right now is a very high

profile investigative reporter and anchor at WTVM and WXTX on this case from the beginning. And I say case as opposed to story. This is no story. Ask Lakin's parents if this is some story. This is real. And they are having to deal with this every day of their lives. And now the suspect is making demands. He's got a nerve. Jason Dennis, I want you to tell me about the area. Thank you for being with us again, Jason. I really appreciate it. You've been there. You're familiar with it. You know exactly what happened. Tell me about the area where Lakin was jogging. Well, these are, you know, Nancy, intramural fields that are commonly used. I mean, there's 40,000 students at the University of Georgia, including my son. And this is an area

that's commonly used intramural fields. People park there, people walk from there to class, walk from class to there, and often work out. And, you know, it's beautiful weather in Athens, Georgia, often, you know, for a lot of the year. And so it's commonly used. And it's not a place where you would go and feel unsafe. But unfortunately, something like this puts, you know puts a new kind of fear in these 18 to 21-year-olds. She was 22 years old. Her body found at lunchtime right there in Athens, right along the trail. And it's heartbreaking. And her family and friends filling the courtroom just a few days ago, just tears rolling down their face from what I understand

as Jose Ibarra was requesting, you know, to throw out some of this evidence, you know, DNA evidence, social media evidence, fingerprint identification, wanting this to be thrown out in what, you know, he mentioned earlier, a slam dunk case. And so it's heartbreaking to know that this happened nine months ago and we're still dealing with that he is still free in terms of he hasn't been convicted yet. So that's, I think, what is description of the man seen in a surveillance video, putting a jacket and latex gloves with blood inside a trash bin on the apartment complex property. 26-year police vet Sergeant Timothy Johnson says the man is even wearing an identical hat. Confronting the man, police learn he is Diego Ibarra, the brother of Jose Ibarra. Asked for identification, he tells officers that he doesn't have an ID,

but has a University of Georgia Food Services employee name tag which reads Diego. A beautiful 22-year-old comes face-to-face with a predator. She dials 911, but it's too late. Diego Ibarra leads officers to his apartment where he hands over his ID, a United States permanent resident card, often called a green card. The poor quality, as well as two separate birthdates listed on the card, it's quickly verified by Homeland Security to be a fake. Diego Ibarra, his brother Jose Ibarra, and two other men in the apartment are detained

and held outside while police wait for a search warrant for the apartment. The apartment is about 500 yards from where Lakin Riley was found. 500 yards from where this beautiful nursing student was found with her skull crushed and her clothes in disarray from an obvious sex attack. It doesn't take long for police to realize that these two related are members of a notorious gang out of Venezuela, Tren de Aragua. Who is Tren de Aragua? Well, number one,

if you have seen headlines in the news recently about gangs taking over apartment complexes, terrorizing the residents in Colorado, it's them. They originated in a prison facility in Venezuela. They specialize in drug trafficking, human smuggling, murder, all sorts of extortion. They moved from Venezuela to Chile and beyond. And now they're here in the U.S., in Colorado, in New York, in Texas, and in Georgia, where Lakin lived with her roommate. So this is where the legal challenge arises, right here.

So how is it, straight back out to investigative reporter joining us, Jason Dennis, what originally led police to this guy and to this apartment. Abara allegedly, you know, was lying in wait, like you mentioned earlier, and, you know, allegedly sexually assaulted and killed Lake and Riley. But what led them to the apartment is they found that evidence in the dumpster and they, you know, were getting tips from people about illegal immigrants living there his brother the suspect in this murder case working at the uh the cafeteria of the dining uh in an area of the university of georgia uh unknowingly uh being an illegal immigrant are you telling me that a member of the notorious venezan gang, Trin de Aragua,

is serving lunch in the UGA cafeteria? And the problem here as well, this was obviously 10 months ago, is that he was not vetted. And so they found out later that he had a fake green card, as it mentioned in that pre pro. And so it's something that, you know, that's the problem is that you're not checking people ahead of time and vetting them to see. And because of those mistakes are made.

Lake and Riley, a 22 year old nursing student, loses her life. This is what I don't understand. He is around all these young co-weds that can be as young as 16 or 17 when they go there. But Chris McDonough joining me, director of the Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective and star of the interview room on YouTube. Do you know what I have to go through

to even try to use a check at the grocery store? I have to show ID. I have to show credit cards. You name it. Forget the check. Never mind. I'll just use a credit card. But this guy is serving food in the cafeteria where every single co-ed is coming through freshman and sophomore years. Really? Yeah, it's almost unbelievable, isn't it, Nancy? I mean, the fact that this guy's part of a transnational organization, a criminal organization creating, you know, drug pipelines into the United States. And by the way, at some point, they're going to clash with the Mexican cartels if this thing doesn't get some, you know, control over it. And so here you have this guy, you know, part of this organization, like you said, you know, scooping potatoes, you know, mashed potatoes for the kids that are coming through the line.

You know, this is more than just he slipped, you know, through the cracks. I mean, think about it. Think about it, Chris McDonough. Let me ask Dr. Chloe this, Dr. Chloe Carmichael joining us. Can't you imagine the looks they give those young girls going through that cafeteria line? And they are nothing but predators, human hyenas? Yes, exactly, Nancy. Of course, they would look at the coeds, the joggers as these, you know, kind of pretty privileged, rich kids, easy pickings, easy prey for these animals. And I think it's really sick that they were actually allowed in there, in the country, frankly, in the first place, much less allowed anywhere near these young people that were just trying to get an education. I'm trying to make the connection

about how they find Lakin's body and then suddenly they're at this guy's apartment. Listen. The male subject had a black and color baseball cap with a white Adidas emblem on it, exactly as that of the suspect in the picture at the dumpsters. While waiting for a search warrant to arrive, officers have Jose Ibarra and his roommates detained outside the apartment. UGA Police Corporal Rafael Sayan describes Jose Ibarra as very quiet and very nervous. Sayan also notices wounds on Jose Ibarra, such as redness on So Cheryl McCollum joining me, Cold Case Research Institute founder, forensics expert. Cheryl, so somebody was doing a great job. They look in a dumpster, they find a jacket, it's got hair on it. But then they look at the video around the dumpster and they see matching outfits and they match it up to these two.

Absolutely. And Nancy, again, from where her body is, if you walk straight, you go right to that dumpster. They did that immediately. But then as they start, you know, walking around the neighborhood, people start pointing. And then one witness was like, yeah, I think I saw him over there. They also then, law enforcement continues across the street to the gas station. They looked at every single trash bin they could find in that entire area. And they pieced this thing together so quickly. And let me tell you, there's a photograph. You can see the command center is parked in front of his apartment door. They played this thing beautifully and so professionally and so quickly.

Let's take a listen from UGA Police Sergeant Josh Epps about what led him to that apartment. Because I believe there's a fair probability there's evidence of the murder inside there. He was seen leaving there. I'm aware of the evidence that was found in the dumpster. And it's not all the articles of clothing that that individual was wearing that day. We have a suspect in custody for Lakeland's murder. We are obtaining arrest warrants for Jose Antonio Iberra, 26 years of age. He lives here in Athens, but is not a U.S. citizen. He has been charged with the following, malice murder, felony murder,

aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. Even in light of the horrific attacks on Lakin, he is in court making demands. What more evidence is there against him? Listen. After Jose Ibarra's arrest for the murder of Lakin Riley, his thumbprint is compared to a latent print found on Lakin Riley's cell phone. It is the opinion of Athens-Clarke Police crime scene technician Tim Stewart that Jose Ibarra is the source for the print found on the phone. The defense team for Jose Ibarra plans to challenge this particular piece of fingerprint evidence that ties Ibarra to the cell phone of Lake and Riley. So how is it, straight out to veteran defense attorney Andrew Stoltman, how is it that when your fingerprint turns up on the victim's cell phone,

how do you try to get that suppressed? One of the defendant's many demands. Well, I think you have to argue that the process of gathering that fingerprint and the related evidence was flawed. Either the police technician was sloppy, they didn't follow standard operating protocol, because if that comes in, it's game, set, and match, right? Because any juror is going to sit here and say, wait a minute, how the heck did the defendant's thumbprint get on the victim's cell phone? So that's just kind of another bullet in

the chamber that kind of goes to the tapestry of guilt, as I like to call it. So they have to challenge everything with respect to the collection process to try to keep that out, because if it comes in, game, set, match, he's going to be convicted. Shedding a little light on the defendant's demands in court, listen. The defense for Jose Ibarra aims to challenge the evidence prosecutors plan to use at trial and have filed motions attempting to incriminate evidence that was seized through a search warrant at Ibarra's home. The defense is also challenging DNA and fingerprint evidence. The defense team for Jose Ibarra is claiming that after Ibarra was detained, a UGA detective got a search warrant for his apartment,

which Ibarra's lawyers say was void on its face and issued without probable cause, while also being overly broad for what officers could look for and seize as evidence. We see this all the time when a search warrant is obtained, and they did obtain a search warrant before seizing items from the apartment. If they don't get a search warrant, cops don't get a search warrant before seizing items from the apartment. If they don't get a search warrant, cops don't get a search warrant. The claim is they hadn't and didn't have a search warrant. This is no good. If they do get a search warrant, a typical challenge is the search warrant is overbroad. What does that mean? Let's say that I finally get fed up and I strangle Jackie right here in the studio. A search warrant is executed on the studio.

The search warrant could say any and all evidence that Nancy Grace ever did anything wrong in her life. That's overbroad? And let's get real, Andrew Stoltman. It's very rare that a search warrant is quashed and the evidence on the return is suppressed because of overbroad. You got to do a little bit better than that. It is most certainly a Hail Mary. And I think they're doing everything to try to keep that evidence out of the case because it is devastating to the case and to the defense of this scumbag defendant. And so, yes, I think we're kind of going through the defense lawyer handbook, the playbook,

throwing up every Hail Mary they can. I don't expect it to be successful. That evidence is coming in. He's going to be convicted. The defense also argues there's no PC, no probable cause to search the home. BS. Listen. Jose Barra's defense argues there's no probable cause to search the apartment and the warrant is overbroad in that it is seeking anything with DNA. Items seized include cell phones, which experts from the FBI analyzed. Prosecutors argue the cell phones were seized in good faith and the facts and circumstances discovered by police make it a reasonable search. Just got Morgan joining me, Professor Forensics. Don't you love cell phones? Can we just enjoy the moment of remembering Alex Murdoch on the stand being confronted with all the cell phone

data that places him at the scene of the double murder of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul. He's like, the cell phone evidence was damning. So in this case, police go in, pursuant to warrant Andrew Stoltman, pursuant to a search warrant signed by a judge, and they seize cell phones and a lot of other evidence. So what could be on the defendant's cell phone or the relative's cell phone or the relative cell phone? What do they want? It's got to be something because the defense is trying so hard to get it suppressed. If it didn't have any probative evidence on it, they wouldn't care. They say, bring it in.

But no, they are fighting tooth and nail to keep that cell phone data out. What is it? Yeah, they are. And I think that you're going to discover perhaps that there are some really incriminating messages. Remember, he's here with his brother and he understands he has this kind of come to Jesus moment where he realizes how deep he's into this thing. He starts communicating with people.

And you see that throughout his actions. But Nancy, there's another piece to this relative to cell phone, the cell phone revealing something. Do you remember when this case first happened, how it was stated that Lakin had an awareness that this was going to happen and that she had initiated a 911 call? It had been put forth that the phone was taken from her. And I'm talking about the physical phone itself. If his thumbprint is on there, that's a damning bit of information. These two had never known each other. He wasn't known to use her phone.

So how do you explain that away? Defense has to do that. And I'll give you one more if you like that one. You begin to think about this damning level of information. What did they say about him when they hooked him up on charges? He had injuries, did he not? We're talking about DNA relative to what may have been beneath her fingernails. Now, we don't know how far out this exclusion or how much the defense is wanting to throw that data out and how that was collected. But both of those elements, and we're not even getting into the electronic stuff.

We're just talking about physical evidence here. That in and of itself is very damning. So I can see why the defense would want to do this. They're going to be drowning relative to the scale of this. Nancy, can I jump in here? I was just about to ask you your thoughts on what could be on that cell phone between the two of them. What if he says, I'm in trouble, I just killed a girl, or you don't know what's on there yet. Here's what I do believe. You're going to see those two phones in the exact same place for the exact same amount of time.

And that's going to be from 12.07 to 12.38-ish. And that's going to be the most damning. Those phones move together for a period of time. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. crime stories with nancy grace jose ibarra is also charged with peeping through the window of an apartment in uga's university village building s and spying on an individual on the same day as riley's murder the person involved in that case is not lincoln riley the defense, another demand in court is that the peeping Tom accusation be severed. In other words, they don't want the Lakin murder jury to hear anything about the peeping Tom, where this guy, Ibarra, is peeping Tom. It's alleged he is peeping Tom, on another young

woman just before Lakin's murder. I bet he does want that thrown out. To Dr. Chloe Carmichael, all it takes is a renowned clinical psychologist like yourself to explain the connection between peeping Toms and rapists, because it's a well-known phenomenon amongst prosecutors. Not all voyeurs, peeping toms, are rapists. But I guarantee you, Dr. Chloe, that all rapists are voyeurs. Yes, to a certain degree, Nancy, exactly. So there's actually also something called algolagnia, which is the anticipation that a sadist feels at the joy of their sick anticipation before they do an act of sadism.

And there's also sometimes a certain amount of stalking and just simply sick logistical planning that a rapist needs to do before he can actually make his move. So the idea that this person, you know, would be stalking her is not a surprise to me. And moreover, the brutality with which he murdered her, I mean, her skull completely crushed. This is somebody who obviously takes some kind of, you know, literal overkill pleasure in what he's doing. He wasn't, you know, physically disabling her just to accomplish a goal. He went above and beyond. And it suggests that he has kind of an animalistic drive there. Obviously, I would venture to say that this is not his first time doing something like this based on the brutality of this attack. And it's no surprise to me at all that the same thing, he was caught with a peeping Tom earlier in the day.

It's also not a surprise to me that he would in the courtroom start making demands. I mean, first he kind of rapes our borders. He comes in here illegally and then proceeds to literally rape our citizens. It's not a surprise to me then that he thinks he can turn the courtroom into his own playground as well. My guess is that he's laughing at our judicial system. Cheryl McCollum was Lakin sex assaulted. Absolutely. And Nancy, I want to just piggyback on what the doctor was just saying. There's a couple of crimes here that, if you look historically, are just called the wrong thing. One is joyriding. We don't call that stealing a car.

Date rape, we should just call rape. And peeping Tom is nothing more than stalking with a sexual motive. A peeping Tom is a sexual predator, period. To Jason Dennis, joining us, WTVM and WXTX. Jason, tell me about the alleged, and I say alleged because none of this has been proven in a court of law. In fact, he's still presumed innocent until it has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jason, tell me about the alleged Peeping Tom incident and the connected incident of him allegedly trying to force another young co-ed's door open before Lakin was found dead. Yeah, these are unfortunately, you know, seen as crimes of opportunity because you have so many students, young co-eds on this campus in Athens, Georgia, and he is lying in wait and watching these young women younger than him and kind of picking his prey. And he is accused of or allegedly pulling up Lake and Riley's clothes

to sexually assault her, then hit her on the head, asphyxiating her, according to prosecutors, pleading. And he's not been charged with sexual assault the peeping tom is a separate incident as well but he's pled you're not guilty to these 10 counts of malice murder kidnapping aggravated assault other crimes i mean it's just a laundry list right now that is piling up on avara and his defense team and so it's something that that it's going to be very very very difficult for them to unprove, to prove that he is innocent, but they're grasping at straws right now. And I think that the fact that you've got these other separate cases, Pee-Ping Tom and other kind of this track

record that Ibarra has for these sexual related crimes, I think that is part of what the prosecution will use to as part of the foundation of their case. Who murdered Lakin Riley and why? We do know this. We know the man charged, Ibarra, a member of a vicious Venezuelan gang that is infiltrating the U.S., was spotted wearing plastic gloves. Why are you wearing plastic gloves in the middle of the day? I hate to give the defense any ideas, but I'm guessing that somehow they're going to connect this to being a food server in the UGA cafeteria. Also, I wonder why he's not charged with any particular sex attack since her clothes had been, let me say, disheveled.

He obviously attempted a sex attack. You know, let me analyze very quickly some of these charges. Andrew Stoltman, it's genius in the charging. I think that they did not charge with an attempted sex attack because they may have may fail improving that. And you don't want to throw in a bad charge with other good charges. One bad apple can spoil the whole thing. Right. Like Michael Jackson said. So why throw in a weak charge that could infect the other charges?

Listen to this. Andrew Stoltman, it's a defense attorney's worst nightmare. They've got him charged with malice murder, which is intentional killing. And of course, malice or intent to kill does not require any particular amount of time, such as a long process like poisoning someone over weeks and months. It could be the time it takes you to pick up a rock and bash her skull. That's enough time to form intent under the law. But just in case the jury doesn't buy it, Stoltman, he's also charged with felony murder. The underlying felonies being ag battery and ag assault, kidnapping. Now, what that means is it doesn't matter if you

intended to kill. If a, very simply, if a death occurs during the commission of a felony, that's felony murder. You don't need intent to kill. And felony murder carries the same penalty in this jurisdiction as does malice murder. Genius charging. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this obviously isn't the first rodeo for these prosecutors, and I think they want to make certain they lead with the tip of the spear, lead with charges that they can absolutely positively prove, and all of these are going to carry a lifetime prison sentence. So, you know, these are good prosecutors. They're going to hammer this guy.

I think it's going to be a game, set, and match for him. One weak link in the jury could be disastrous. One person that finds an issue with the fingerprint, with the DNA. I'm not sure how they're challenging the DNA. I think it's because of the search warrant. But that said, all it takes is one weak link. I mean, I want you to hear this, Cheryl. During the attack on Lakin, the perp allegedly prevents her from calling 911, just like in Molly Tibbetts' murder, then uses an object, which we believe to be a rock, to beat her in the head so badly her skull is crushed, disfigured.

Then he's accused, and I don't know why this isn't in the indictment, of not only asphyxiating her, but trying to pull her clothes off to sex assault her. Then he drags her body from the intramural fields to a secluded area to conceal it. I mean, think about it. It's, again, it's like a wolf out in the wild, Cheryl. He targeted her as soon as he saw her. This was absolutely a crime of opportunity. What you are seeing is a sexually motivated predator, a motivated sexual assault. Whether he completed what he intended or not, maybe he got disrupted because somebody else was coming down the path. Maybe he heard people talking and laughing. I don't know. But what we do know is he, at a level of murder, took a life of someone he simply saw in a moment.

As we go to air, there are challenges to the state's evidence. The defendant wants the peeping Tom severed. Why? He doesn't want the jury to know he's a perv. They are challenging the search warrant. That search warrant yielded very valuable probative evidence, evidence that proves something. If that search warrant attack prevails, much of the evidence will be suppressed. We are also seeing, as in the Brian Koberger case, a demand for a change of venue. The defense saying the defendant cannot get a fair trial in Athens, Georgia. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye, friend.

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