Law&Crime Sidebar - 11 Disturbing Claims About Laken Riley's Murder Uncovered as Trial Begins

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Jose Ibarra, 26, is accused of killing Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging near the University of Georgia. Ibarra’s bench trial got underway Friday, with emotional opening statements and graphic testimony. He faces life in prison if convicted. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has the latest.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. He went hunting for females on the University of Georgia's campus. And in his hunt, he encountered 22-year-old Lake and Riley. People have used this case for their own personal gain, financial gain, political gain. The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Lake and Riley is circumstantial. Oh, shit. Did the university have found it?

Ma'am. I suspected that this wasn't an accident based on the circumstances which you had been found. So I started communicating with Sarcanep's that we need to be setting up a perimeter to preserve any evidence to the defendant of the crime occurred. The man accused of brutally murdering nursing student, Lakin Riley, is now standing trial for this shocking crime. Jose Ibarra is facing life in prison if convicted for killing the 22-year-old while she was out jogging on the University of Georgia campus back in February. After waiving his right to a jury trial, Abara's fate is solely in the hands of the judge. We're going to break down the key testimony so far from the trial.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. The highly anticipated Lakin Riley murder trial kicked off on Friday, and the man accused of killing her, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra, is looking at life behind bars if he's convicted. The death of the 22-year-old, a nursing student at Augusta University, shocked the community, shocked the country, became a part of the national debate over immigration, since, as investigators later revealed, Ybarra was an undocumented immigrant. Lakin was tragically killed on February 22nd of this year when she was just out for a morning jog on the University of Georgia campus. Prosecutors say Ibar approached her while wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a black hat, kitchen gloves. He allegedly blocked her path as she tried to call 911 and then proceeded to attack her. Lakin apparently fought back, scratching her alleged attacker's arms and neck as she struggled to escape. A bar allegedly tried to pull Lakin's shirt over her neck and attempt to rape her before strangling her and hitting her head multiple times with a rock.

The body was later found along a wooded trail on the university campus. Now, Abar's defense attorneys say that while the evidence definitely points to the violence of this crime, it doesn't prove that a bar is the person responsible for Lakin's death. And also, I'll tell you, they may be putting the focus not only on somebody else, but someone close to Jose Ibar. I'll explain that in a minute. But Abar was arrested a day after the crime. He's remained in custody without bail since then. He faces an array of charges, malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence.

And also a peeping Tom charge. Now, that relates to him allegedly looking into the windows of a campus apartment on the same day that Lakin was killed. Now, just before the trial began, Jose Ibarra, through his defense team, did something interesting. they requested a bench trial, meaning that a judge rather than a jury will decide if he's guilty or not. And that last minute request follows many failed motions from Jose Abara's defense team to change the trial's location and to exclude evidence. So it seems that they were concerned about a jury being swayed by the graphic nature of this crime and that they could decide this case based on a motion and not the facts, the law, the evidence. So instead, they have

have opted for the judge, H. Patrick Haggard, to be the trier of fact, more of a sober analysis of the evidence. Okay, we'll see if it works for them. The only problem is another disadvantage to think about. Now you only have one person deciding this case now. That could be a problem. By the way, I have to say, as heartbreaking as this story is, and it certainly is, it's also an important one to cover, especially as the nation has been following it. And look, it is our privilege to be able to break down for you what has been happening in that courtroom. And one of the reasons that we can do that is because we get amazing support from our sponsors. And I have to call out one in particular right now, Morgan and Morgan. I have to say, look, if you should get hurt,

America's largest injury law firm may be who you want in your corner. Not only over a thousand attorneys and support staff, not only is the process super simple because it can all be done right from your smartphone. Not only is there no upfront fee, but Morgan and Morgan's track record is incredible. Recent verdicts, like $12 million in Florida, $26 million in Philadelphia, $6.8 million in New York. All of these, mind you, considerably higher than the highest insurance offers in these cases. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar. So with day one in the books, I want to recap some of the highlights about what happened in that courtroom. And I have to start with opening statements. Special prosecutor, Sheila

Ross argued that Jose Ibar was, quote, hunting for females when he alleged killed Lakin Riley, and she revealed the harrowing detail surrounding her murder, including the fact that Lakin's fight for her life was just savage. And also, what was the key evidence that was left behind? On February 22nd, Jose Ibarra put on a black hat, a hoodie-style jacket, and some black kitchen-style disposable gloves, and he went hunting for females on the University of Georgia's campus. And in his hunt, he encountered 22-year-old Lakin Riley

on her morning jog. And when Lakin Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly. That is what this case is all about. The evidence will show that Lakin fought. She fought for her life. She fought for her dignity. And in that fight,

she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind. She also marked her killer for the entire world to see. The forensic evidence that he left behind in this fight is his DNA and only his DNA in Lakin's, underneath Lakin's right fingernails. He also left behind in a struggle with her over her phone because the court will hear that she called 911. He left behind his left thumbprint on her iPhone, which was found not far from her body at the crime scene. And it is that forensic evidence alone that would give you enough evidence to find him guilty. as charged on the counts in this indictment.

Let's process that for a second. DNA evidence, scratches, injuries to his hands, arms, neck, back, thumbprint on the phone. Is that an open and shut case? You might think so, but that's not even all they allegedly have. Because Ross also indicated that when you look at security camera video at a barra's apartment complex at around 9.44 a.m. that morning, you see a man throw something into a recycle bin and also something into the bushes. And I want you to keep that in mind because we're going to talk about that soon.

It's going to be, I think, arguably, one of the more key pieces of evidence in this case. But prosecutors also say that Lakin's smart watch was important, that it gave a timeline of events. Her smart watch indicated that something happened at 9.10 a.m. She stops dead in her tracks. She initiates the SOS emergency function on her phone to call 911. Minutes later, her watch moved 65 feet into the woods. and then her heart stops at 9.28 a.m. That's based on the watch data.

So 18 minutes after first encountering Jose Ibarra, according to the prosecutor's theory. Now, what did the defense say? Well, defense attorney Dustin Kirby argued that the evidence against Abara is circumstantial, claiming that it would take gymnastics for the prosecution to be able to prove that Ibarra killed Lakin. What happened to Lakin Riley is graphic and disturbing. and it is a tragedy.

The loss of any life that young and apparently full of promise is a tragedy. And I'm sorry that the family is having to go through this and be here for the presentation of this evidence. People have used this case for their own personal gain, financial gain, political gain, And while this process is, has its place for testing evidence, it's very poorly suited to healing hearts and minds. So it's the evidence that we have to talk about.

And the evidence in this case. is very good that Lake and Riley was murdered. The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Lake and Riley is circumstantial. The evidence that anyone had any intent or certainly committed any sexual assault is speculation. Most importantly, in this case, you'll hear no evidence that a sexual assault was committed. You'll hear nothing from the GBI, the FBI, UGAPD, ACCPD, that after looking at all of the evidence in this case, scouring for anything that could help prove this.

allegation in the state's indictment, that they found any biological evidence that would suggest that, any physical evidence that would suggest that. There's no injuries that are consistent with the sexual assault. And in this case, it's an effort to explain a tragedy. But it's not based on evidence. The evidence that Jose Ibarov killed anyone is circumstantial. And it's this kind of gymnastics that it will take to tell the story with this circumstantial evidence. We waived a jury trial in this case with a hope and trust that despite the nature of this evidence that you could come to a verdict that was not just a way of easing this family suffering but it was based on an impartial and honest assessment of the evidence in this case if that happens

And the presumption of innocence is respected. There should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Yvora is guilty of the crimes charged. I don't know. Is it really just a circumstantial evidence case based on what the prosecution says they have? We'll talk about it. I'm also going to talk about where the defense is pointing their finger in a second. But I want to move on to the evidence.

So Lake and Riley, she left for her run at around 9 a.m. in the morning of February 22nd. And as I mentioned, it was only about 10 minutes after that that she called 911. And that eerie 911 phone call was played in court. Far County, 911. Hello, this is Far County 911. Hello? Hello, Far County, 911.

Can anyone hear me? For our county 911, 911. Yeah, mostly silent 911 call where the only sounds that can be heard are birds chirping and then you hear this stomping sound towards the end of that call. When dispatchers attempted to call back, they got no answer. When Laken Riley's roommates realized that she never came back home after her run, they went out to look for her. In fact, Lakin's roommate, Lily Steiner, testified how she was growing concerned about Lakin and how she used the Find My iPhone feature to try to find her. I went downstairs and I didn't see her sitting at her usual spot at the kitchen table.

So I checked her location to see where she was. and I saw that she was on a run at on a trail that she typically ran. The L.R. is the initials of Lake and Riley. You can see that at the bottom. And underneath her name is a rough just address, I guess, of where she was at. And then underneath that, it says now.

This is the exact time of when her location, like the way that it updated. it would say now, so that was her location at that exact time. And is that what you saw when you first checked? Yes. Where is that location? And is your house in here as well and other people? We see other initials, C.H., MC, whatever.

Yes, so C.H. is Connolly Hooth. That is my roommate. And so her location right there is at our house. And then MC, that is one of my other friends who lived further down the street. And L.R. was like in mind. Yes. Where is that location that you saw her, are you familiar with that location? Roughly, yes.

Yeah. And when you checked it, what about the first time you checked it approximately what time? It was about 930 from what I remember. So did you again check it again? Yes, so when I got home from my first set of errands and I saw that Lake and still wasn't home, that wasn't unusual because it was only about an hour. after i checked her first location so i thought maybe she was just still on a run checked it a second time around 1045 i believe that's a rough estimate and i saw that it was in the

same location that did raise some concerns we walked down using the her knowledge of the path that lincoln would usually take on a run and then when we got a little bit closer we were using the Find My Friends app to kind of go directly to where her location was until we were standing kind of right around it. When you were at the location where you felt that Lakin was showing on her phone, did you see Lakin? We did not. At some point, did you all return home? We did. Okay. When you got home, what did you do? It wasn't shortly after that we got, we got home that I called 911, or not 911, excuse me, the UGA Police Department. Steiner and another roommate reported Lakin was missing shortly afternoon, and the call that

Steiner made to the police, that was played for the judge. She hasn't class at one, so that's her nursing. She is at the nursing school and she does not miss track. 12-08 43, 2nd, February, 22, 2000, 244. How did you get our last room location? Was it from her phone? Yes, it was updating, so that's why we were, That's why we were a little confused.

Yeah, but we didn't see her phone up anywhere when we went. She hasn't moved for almost three and a half hours now. How did she get there? Did she run from your house there or did she take a vehicle there? Yes, she runs the truck. Her car still out at her house. and she was also shown ring doorbell footage that positively identified lake and riley when she left for her run pause quickly do you see first of all states four that is now

being published the date and the time of this footage yes did you tell the court what where is it and what is it um it's in the bottom right corner and what's the date and what's the time February 22nd, 2024, 903 Eastern. And who is that person that we see in state's exhibit for? That is Lincoln. After 9.03 a.m. On the 22nd day at February, did you ever hear from Lincoln again? I did not.

Did you ever receive any text messages from her? Not after 903, no. Any calls from her? No. What makes this case unique as you're seeing is prosecutors have a timeline. You don't usually have that. But based on the digital evidence, you are seeing seemingly when this killing took place. And that's, again, a huge, huge advantage for the prosecution to lay all this out.

But now I want to move on to Sergeant Kenneth Maxwell, because he's, was the one who found Lake and Riley's body about a half hour after she was reported missing. And he described the condition of her body. In fact, body cam footage was played that captured the sergeant's reaction to discovering her body. And I should tell you that Lake and Riley's mother had to leave the courtroom while this was playing completely understandable. Can only imagine how difficult this would be. That footage showed Sergeant Maxwell locating Lake and Riley attempting to perform CPR on her. And by the way, we were only allowed to film the audio of his reaction where he can be heard saying that lakin appeared to have been

attacked. Ma'am. She's bouncing, not breathing, potentially been attacked. Starting CPR now. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 30, 30, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 19, 20, 21, 22, 22, 23, 23, 24, 24, 25, 25, 26, 27, 2, 28, 29, 30, I'm not getting me volts, she's stiff, 1, 2, 2, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 60, 17, 18, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 27, 28, 28, 29, 39, 30, let's watch you exact, 1, 2, come back through, what you say, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 15, 50, 60, 17, take over. Looks like blunt force trauma to the head or shirt has been removed above her breasts.

When you observed, like in Riley, first of all, how would you describe her clothing? So it appeared that her clothing, at least her shirt, had been removed to up above her breast. It did not look as if something had like intentionally, unintentionally happened, as if, you know, somebody falls and has a wardrobe out function. It looked more intentional as if somebody had attempted to either remove her top or maybe had used it to drag. And we also heard from a crime scene specialist, too. GBI special agent Daniela Stewart. She was the one who analyzed and photographed the crime scene on the afternoon of that killing. And she described the injuries to Lakin's torso and head and showed the crime scene photos from the area where Lakin's body was found, saying it appeared as if a, quote, significant disturbance had occurred.

Did you observe injuries to Lakin Riley's body? Yes. Yes. Stacy is at 35. Tell the court, first of all, where overall did you observe injuries? So there were injuries to the left side of her head, and then there were also these linear marks on her torso. What injuries did you see when you pulled down her underwear? There was another linear mark that looks kind of similar to the ones that were on her

torso, but a little bit wider. I want to go on to your evidence markers two and three, what were those? this was evidence markers two and three represent rocks that were bloodstained and then evidence marker four represents the tree that had blood stains all right before we zoom in on two three and four what if anything did you notice about this area in your crime scene sketch that you label two three and four so in this area near evidence markers two three and four there was also an area where i could actually the ground where the leaves were significantly disturbed to the point where I could physically see the ground.

And why is that significant to you? Because the leaf coverage was pretty thick throughout the entire crime scene and there were no other areas where I could actually see the ground. So what conclusions did you draw based upon that? Based on that and then also like her hair being very matted, some type of significant disturbance happened in that area. That is a rock. Is this one two or three?

that one is evidence marker two and there were some hairs on that rock what type of hair um it looked like it was brown crime scene specialist also took photos of hose ibarra where again injuries can be seen on different parts of his body did you observe injuries on his body yes and did you photograph those injuries i did and the the time that you saw him excuse me that day uh is he heavier or lighter than than he is today as far as When I photographed him, he was heavier. States 94, and it might be really hard to see, but maybe not. What is that depict?

An overall photograph of his hands. And did you observe or photograph any injuries to his hands? I did. In general, just show us where they were, and then I'll try to get the close-up photos. Okay, so you're on the left hand for the record? Yes. Okay. And you pointed to the wrist area?

Yes. Left pinky finger. Yes. Okay. And I believe I've got this one as well. Right. Middle finger, yes. That's the wrist, left wrist.

States 98. Left pinky. Whose scale is that? Mine. Okay. That's 96. States 96. Oh, yeah, that would have been, I think, the left middle finger from the previous soda.

The scratch on the forearm. Can you show that to, of course, is that where your sticker is? Yeah. Your scale? Yes. I try to put the scale close to the injury. And is that his right side or his left side? I believe that's the left side.

Yes, because it would be here. That's the left side? Yes. The left side of the neck. And what did you observe to the left side of the left? neck scratch all right and is that you just point to it for the record above the necklace but below the ear yes states 115 that's the same the same injury with a cell and what side of your scale is that injury for the record

in the middle of the photograph to the right side of the scale yes states 112 that would be the right side of the front neck what did you observe there okay you look like it was a scratch okay in the middle of the photo states 113 same scratch with a scale If these injuries are true, why did he have them? Was he engaged in a struggle with Lake and Riley? Now, investigators, they searched nearby dumpsters where Lake and Riley had been killed to try to uncover evidence.

And one of the last witnesses of the day was Officer Zachary Davis, and he said he was checking dumpsters at apartment complexes around UGA, and he noticed some suspicious clothing in one of these dumpsters. I noticed there were three dumpsters, two of which were trash receptacle, the one that was clearly marked for recycling. I checked the two trash ones. They have the sliding doors on the side. Looked in there, didn't notice anything again. Nothing that really stuck out to me is pertinent. Finally went to the one that was strictly labeled for recycling. The sides of it were welded shut, but the top was open, so I climbed up onto it and looked down into it, and that's

why I noticed the blue jacket. Could you see anything else on the jacket at some point? Not from this height. At this point, we didn't want to just be chasing down clothes and dumpsters, but given this proximity to the scene as well as the photo that was taken i immediately notified my supervisor so that he could contact me to Georgia police department since they were taking it working the case detectives from uGA came out to look at it they decided they would like to collect the evidence i volunteered to climb into a dumpster and upon picking up the jacket i noticed that there were leaves on it there were tears on the front as well and would appear to be some darker red or brown stains on the sleeves near the wrist and body-worn camera footage was

shown to the judge too of the recovery of this jacket oh yeah there's hair on the buttons ripped up sleeves Um, can you bundle it up with whatever is? Yeah, let me open the thing. I mentioned this before, but what we're seeing? I mentioned this before, but what we're seeing is prosecutors trying to prove that Jose Ibarra threw out evidence when he got back to his apartment in the recycling bin in the bushes. And it turns out that law enforcement reportedly finds a dark hooded jacket with blood stains that they say match Lake and Riley. And possibly

Ibarra's DNA is on that too. And also they find these strands of long, dark hair on a button on the jacket, presumably Lake and Riley's too. And prosecutors also say there's this nearby apartment that has a doorbell ring video camera set up with a view of a dumpster. that actually captures a man that they say later is identified as Jose Ibarra disposing of something into that dumpster too. So as if you didn't think that this case was strong enough with everything that I mentioned, the DNA, the forensics, the smart watch data, now you have this. So some strong, strong evidence in this case. Now, it is being reported that the defense plans to call at least one of Jose Ibarra's brothers on the stand. He apparently had been living with two of them.

And one of those brothers is Diego Ibarra, who was actually arrested in charge with green card fraud. And it's also being reported that he may have had connections to a Venezuelan gang known as Trendaaragua. And I have to say, based on some cross-examination by the defense in this case, they arguably may be putting the focus on him as a potential suspect. News Nation is reporting that last week, the defense showed pictures that show DeEye's. was wearing the same baseball hat that Jose was said to have been wearing on the day that Lake and Riley was killed and maybe was wearing similar clothes. And when you think of brothers, close DNA matches, perhaps. So you have to wonder if that's where the defense is going, putting the blame on a different Ibarra. We shall see.

The Lake and Riley murder trial against Jose Ibarra continues this week. You can stream gavel to gavel coverage on our long crime YouTube channel and we'll make sure to cover it for you here on sidebar if there are any kind of major developments. That's all we have for you right now here on this episode of Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.