AllaSerebrina / Depositphotos.com
ATLANTA, GA (WSAU) – Jose Ibarra, who is accused of the murder of Georgia college student Laken Riley, entered a plea of not guilty on Friday morning during his first appearance since his arrest earlier this year.
According to the New York Post, Ibarra, 26, who has been in the United States illegally since crossing the southern border in 2022 from Venezuela, is accused of killing the 22-year-old by causing blunt-force injuries to her skull and “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to jurors.”
Authorities state that Riley had gone for a run around campus and was allegedly murdered by Ibarra, who lived nearby at the University of Georgia. Riley’s body was discovered approximately five minutes from Ibarra’s apartment and her death was described by police as a “crime of opportunity.”
Ibarra has been linked by authorities to the notorious Venezuelan gang El Tren de Aragua, known for being involved in numerous transnational criminal activities such as the smuggling of drugs, contraband, and migrants into the U.S. and expanding their network to nearly every major South American country since 2018. His arrest for the murder of Riley is not the first time he’s been arrested since entering the U.S.; he was detained in New York City back in 2022 for endangering a child, which led him to be charged with a felony before being released a short time later.
Comments