The suspect in the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, Jose Antonio Ibarra, has officially been charged.
According to Fox News, 26-year-old Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was indicted by a grand jury on the counts of malice murder, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated battery, tampering with evidence, obstructing or hindering a person from making a 911 call, and being a “peeping Tom.”
Riley was found dead after she went out for a run along the trails at the University of Georgia-Athens campus on February 22.
Ibarra is also accused of going to an apartment at the campus’ “University Village Housing Building ’S’” where he “peeped through” a window and “spied upon” a staff member with the university the same day he allegedly killed Riley.
Ibarra is accused of causing Riely’s death by blunt force trauma to the head and “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to the Grand Jurors,” the indictment states, adding that Ibarra allegedly “seriously disfigured her head by striking her head multiple times with a rock.”
Ibarra came into the US illegally in September 2022. He was released into the US by Border Patrol at El Paso, with Senator Josh Hawley saying in April that he was released because of a “lack of detention capacity.” Ibarra was previously arrested in New York for multiple offenses but was released.
