Illegal Alien Indicted for Murder of Laken Riley

The illegal alien who is accused of killing Georgia college student Laken Riley has finally been indicted on 10 different counts, including murder.

As ABC News reports, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra, an illegal from Venezuela, was indicted with malice murder and felony murder on Tuesday for the killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student who was killed while going out for a morning jog. Her body was found in a wooded area of the University of Georgia campus in Athens on February 22nd, with her skull crushed and face beaten beyond recognition.

The indictment from the Athens Clarke County grand jury says that Ibarra killed Riley by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her,” and mangled her face by hitting her “multiple times” with a rock.

In addition to the two murder charges, the indictment also charges Ibarra with aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call, and tampering with evidence, after he “knowingly concealed” evidence of the crime of malice murder. Separate from Riley’s murder, Ibarra was also charged with a “peeping tom” crime for spying on another college student earlier that same day.

“Ibarra will be arraigned on a date to be set by the court,” said a spokesman for the Western Circuit District Attorney’s Office in a statement. “At this time, we will make no further statements on this case.”

Arrested the day after Riley’s body was found, Ibarra was initially charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, concealing the death of another, and hindering a 911 call. He is currently being held at the Clarke County Jail after being denied bond.

The case drew widespread outrage from across the country, particularly after it was revealed that he had been arrested once before in New York City, after he first came into the country illegally in 2022. Federal immigration authorities say that he was charged in New York with attempting to injure a minor, as well as a motor vehicle license violation; however, the NYPD released him before a detainer could be issued. The NYPD has denied having an arrest record under his name.

The incident and the circumstances leading up to it drew renewed calls for a crackdown on illegal immigration, with conservatives rallying behind Laken Riley’s name. At Joe Biden’s most recent State of the Union address, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) heckled him during the speech demanding that he say Riley’s name, at which point Biden incorrectly referred to her as “Lincoln Riley.”