Day 2 of the murder trial of the man accused of killing Georgia student Laken Riley wraps up

Testimony has wrapped up Monday in the case against Jose Antonio Ibarra, accused of killing University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

Court will resume Tuesday morning.

A prosecuting attorney told the judge that the state intends to rest its case sometime on Tuesday. An attorney for Ibarra said the defense team has less than half a day of testimony planned from witnesses.

FBI Special Agent James “Jay” Berni testifies about location history data for a cell phone tied to Jose Ibarra in court on Monday in Athens, Georgia.

Location history data for a cell phone tied to Jose Antonio Ibarra, who is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley, placed his phone “very close” to Laken Riley at the time of her killing, FBI Special Agent James “Jay” Berni testified in court Monday.

Data points presented by Berni in court showed the cell phone’s movement from Ibarra’s apartment, toward and around the apartment of a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, who testified in court about a person who was peeking into her apartment and trying to open her front door, on the same day Laken Riley was killed.

Next, Ibarra’s “device was most likely in the forested area somewhere along this park (Oconee Forest Park),” at 9:09 a.m., Berni testified.

The special agent testified between 9:09 a.m. and 9:12 a.m., Laken Riley’s digital profile and Jose Ibarra’s phone were “very close.”

“I would say that the devices came in contact somewhere around the late 9:10s (…) until approximately, I would say, probably 9:32,” Berni said. As CNN previously reported, Riley’s smartwatch data showed her heart stopped at 9:28 a.m.

The special agent explained Ibarra’s cell phone location then moved away from the crime scene, back to his apartment, specifically to the dumpster at his apartment complex around 9:44 a.m.

Sally Kirklewski, a public health researcher who often went running on trails in Athens, Georgia, testified she spotted a lone person on the trail wearing a navy blue jacket on the morning of Laken Riley’s murder.

The person appeared to be a man and the jacket’s hood was up. He was also wearing black gloves or mittens, dark pants and dark shoes, she testified. He was standing near a retention pond facing away from the trail, she said.

“I continued running past this person a little bit faster,” she said. She explained she was “a little worried” because he did not look up when she came running around.

Prosecutors have argued Jose Ibarra was wearing a navy blue jacket when he killed Riley on the running trail. Ibarra allegedly threw that jacket – which contained both his and Riley’s DNA – into a dumpster near his home, according to prosecutors.

A 24-year-old doctoral student at the University of Georgia testified in court about a person who was peeking into her apartment and trying to open her front door, on the same day Laken Riley was killed.

The student said she was showering in her one-bedroom apartment, where she lived alone, when she heard someone trying to open her front door on February 22 of this year.

She looked through the peephole and saw a person with a black hood, black hat, black jacket and black gloves, but could not see the person’s face, the witness said.

When she asked who was there, she said the person ducked down.

When she grabbed her phone to call for help, the witness said she saw the same person at her living room window, trying to look inside her apartment.

She reported the incident to 911, and two University of Georgia police officers responded to her apartment to take her statement, the student said.

Jonathan Simon, an officer with the University of Georgia Police Department, testified when he responded to her apartment, the student seemed shaken.

A recorded jail phone call between murder suspect Jose Ibarra and his wife, Layling Franco, after his arrest in the killing of Laken Riley, was played in court on Monday.

FBI specialist Abeisis Ramirez provided a Spanish to English translation of the call played in court, describing the couple picking up their previous conversation, discussing that Ibarra had gone to the University of Georgia for work, before Franco began urging Ibarra to “tell the truth.”

“She continues to ask him: What happened with the girl?” Ramirez testified. “She tells him that he has to know something, and he just continues to tell her like, ‘Layling enough, Layling enough.’”

Ramirez said Layling then “said that she thinks it’s crazy that they don’t have anyone else’s DNA – they only have his. And she said she doesn’t understand how someone can see someone dying and not call 911.”

“I know you know something,” Ramirez said she continued.

Jose Ibarra could be seen looking down several times as the jail call recording between him and his wife was played in court.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross shows a piece of evidence to University of Georgia Sgt. Joshua Epps during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday.

Testimony resumed Monday morning in the trial of Jose Antonia Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela accused of killing University of Georgia student Lakin Riley in February.

Prosecutors called officers who first encountered Ibarra after Riley’s killing to the stand, as well as investigators who collected digital evidence that they say came from Ibarra’s phone. The judge – who will be rendering a verdict in this case without a jury – also heard from one of Ibarra’s roommates.

Here’s a recap of testimony before Monday’s lunch break:

Data from Laken Riley’s smartwatch show her heart rate and moving speed slowing down and coming to a dramatic stop on the morning of her death on February 22, according to testimony from university police officer and digital forensics expert Wesley Durkit.

A chart of her speed from her phone and Garmin watch shows Riley was running at a pace of 2.65 meters per second at about 9:08:30 a.m. when she sped up to 2.97 meters per second. The graph shows she then slowed down and sped up again before she abruptly stopped moving at about 9:10:44 a.m., Durkit testified.

A heart rate graph similarly shows Riley’s heart rate increased to a peak of 170 beats per minute before gradually declining at about 9:10:45 a.m.

She activated the SOS feature on her phone at 9:10:39 a.m. and a 911 call went out at 9:11:06 a.m., Durkit testified.

Riley’s heart rate dropped to zero beats per minute at 9:28:23 a.m., he testified. It remained at zero until a few short spikes at 12:38 p.m., when a police officer found her body and performed CPR, he testified.

In opening statements, prosecutor Sheila Ross said the Garmin watch – a Christmas gift to Riley – offered key details on her final movements.

“This watch captured a lot of important data,” Ross said.

Jose Ibarra’s cell phone had also been used by his brother Diego and roommate Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, FBI special agent Jamie Hipkiss testified on cross-examination.

Facebook accounts connected to Diego Ibarra and Flores-Bello had been used on Jose Ibarra’s phone, he testified.

The defense has sought to raise questions about the digital evidence in the case.

After a short redirect, Hipkiss’ testimony ended.

On the morning after the murder of Laken Riley, police confronted Jose Ibarra in his apartment.

The body camera of one University of Georgia police officer captured the moment officers reached Ibarra, who was asleep at the time they arrived.

Watch the moment here:

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Bodycamera shows police confront Jose Ibarra

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Video credit: Pool / UGA Police Department

Selfie photos on Jose Ibarra’s cell phone show him wearing clothes “consistent with” the suspect who was seen on video throwing out evidence connected to the killing of nursing student Laken Riley, FBI special agent Jamie Hipkiss testified.

Surveillance footage played in court Friday showed a man wearing a white-and-black shirt and black hat tossing a navy blue jacket into a dumpster. That jacket was recovered by investigators and contained Ibarra’s and Riley’s DNA, according to prosecutors.

In selfies taken the day of the murder, Ibarra wore a white-and-black shirt, black Adidas hat and navy blue jacket, said Hipkiss, who examined the Ibarra brothers’ cell phones.

On cross-exam, Hipkiss acknowledged that Ibarra’s brother Diego also had access to the same cell phone.

His testimony will resume at about 1:30 p.m. ET after a lunch break.

Jose Ibarra listens through an interpreter during his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, November 18, in Athens, Georgia.

Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, the woman who shared an Athens apartment with Jose Ibarra and his brothers, was called to testify in Ibarra’s trial on Monday morning.

Flores-Bello testified she heard about Laken Riley’s murder from a neighbor at their apartment complex on February 22. She told the court she went into the shared apartment and told her roommate Argenis Ibarra – the defendant’s brother – who then relayed to the others a murder had occurred.

Flores-Bello said her roommates showed no reaction to the information.

The witness also recalled identifying Jose Ibarra in surveillance video to officers, while being questioned on February 23.

Flores-Bello agreed she thought Ibarra discarding his jacket, as shown in surveillance video, seemed strange.

Cpl. Rafael Sayan testifies in court on Monday in Athens, Georgia.

Jose Ibarra and his brothers seemed to be in a jovial mood the morning after Laken Riley was killed, a UGA police officer testified Monday.

Cpl. Rafael Sayan, who is fluent in Spanish, was called to help translate police interviews with Ibarra and his brothers, Diego and Argenis, around 8 a.m. February 23.

Sayan said he spoke with all three Ibarra brothers in Spanish and noticed their mood seemed “very relaxed.”

“There was a lot of laughing, giggling – especially when they were talking about how they were woken up, pulled out of the apartment,” Sayan testified. “I would say the vibe or the atmosphere was very relaxed and calm.”

More context: Jose, Diego and Argenis Ibarra have all been charged with various offenses. Read more about the Ibarra brothers here.

Annie Moorman, a crime scene specialist with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, testified she and other investigators searched Jose Ibarra’s apartment for evidence the day after Laken Riley’s death.

Investigators collected several plastic “restaurant-style” kitchen gloves and electronic devices, she testified.

The discovery of the gloves was notable because “earlier in the day, officers had located gloves that had been described as looking sort of like these from a bush at the apartment complex,” Moorman testified.

They did not find any signs of blood in the apartment, she testified.

A screengrab from police body camera footage shows Jose Ibarra pointing to his wrist while being questioned by police the day after Laken Riley was killed.

The suspect in the murder of Laken Riley did not have an explanation for abrasions on his arms, including what appeared to be a fresh scratch on his wrist, according to a University of Georgia Police officer who questioned him in Spanish.

“He said that he had a scratch, but he didn’t exactly explain from where or how,” Cpl. Rafael Sayan said in court Monday.

Sayan had been asked to conduct the questioning of Jose Ibarra because the initial responding officer does not speak Spanish. In body camera video played in court, Ibarra can be seen pointing to his arms and wrist while speaking to the officer.

“First he says, ‘I don’t have anything there … there’s nothing there,’” Sayan testified as the video was played. “Then he starts pointing at it again, saying that, ‘Oh, it’s just a scratch.’”

Sayan said the scratch on Ibarra’s left wrist appeared to be moist with bodily fluid, suggesting it was fresh. “It didn’t look very old,” the officer said.

Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, was seen crying in court as the footage of Ibarra discussing his injuries was played.

The first witness called on the second day of the trial against Jose Ibarra, who is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus on February 22, was a University of Georgia Police officer, who testified to seeing injuries on Ibarra he said “looked like fingernail scratches.”

“While speaking to him, I noticed on his right arm, his bicep, there was a scratch,” Sgt. Joshua Epps told the court on Monday morning, describing his encounter with Ibarra the morning of February 23. “On his left arm, he had a forearm scratch that was very similar – which in my mind, looked like fingernail scratches to me.”

“I also noticed on his left wrist, just below the palm, he had a puncture – maybe half an inch wide – that, through my experiences playing sports in high school, and receiving the same injury from fingernails in football, I could see, like, wet flesh, like almost like it was fresh. It wasn’t very old,” Epps explained.

As Epps describes injuries on Jose Ibarra’s body, Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, was seen in the courtroom crying and wiping away tears.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, the defendant, has two brothers also from Venezuela facing their own legal issues and who are likely to play a key role in the trial.

The three brothers were questioned and detained by police in Athens, Georgia, on February 23, the day after Laken Riley’s death, in part because they matched a description of the suspect.

The prosecution has said DNA evidence ties Jose Ibarra to the murder and excludes the brothers, but the defense has sought to question the quality of that DNA evidence and analysis. The brothers have been subpoenaed to appear in court on Wednesday.

Diego Ibarra, an older brother, pleaded guilty in July to two counts of possession of a fraudulent document, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia. He admitted to possessing a counterfeit US permanent resident card, according to the office.

Diego Ibarra, brother of Jose Ibarra, is seen in this mugshot.

Diego Ibarra faces a maximum of ten years in prison to be followed by up to three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine per count. He remains in federal detention.

Diego Ibarra first encountered US Border Patrol agents in April 2023, and he was processed for immediate removal, according to court documents. He “claimed a fear of return to Venezuela” and was released due to a finding of credible fear – pending adjudication of his claim for asylum, according to court documents.

Argenis Ibarra, a younger brother, was charged by federal indictment with two counts each of possession of a fraudulent document, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia. He faces a maximum of ten years in prison to be followed by up to three years of supervised release and a $250,0000 fine per count.

According to the indictment, Argenis Ibarra allegedly possessed a fraudulent US Permanent Resident Card and a counterfeit US Social Security Card in his own name. Argenis Ibarra made his initial appearance in federal court on July 11, and was detained.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene chats on the floor of the House of Representatives ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the US Capitol in March.

Laken Riley’s killing – allegedly by an undocumented immigrant – quickly became a national political issue.

During President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech in March, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, interrupted the president and called for him to acknowledge Riley’s death. Biden responded by holding up a button that read: “Say Her Name LAKEN RILEY.”

In the months following Riley’s death, several states passed new laws on immigration enforcement. In May, Georgia enacted a law that requires local and state law officials to verify the immigration status of those over age 18 who have been arrested, those in detention or those who an “officer has probable cause to believe” have committed a crime.

Riley’s father, Jason Riley, told NBC News in March he felt “angry” that his daughter’s case has been “used politically to get those votes.” While he said he supports Trump and the need to secure the southern border, Riley’s father told NBC he’d prefer his daughter’s death “not be so political.”

Here are some of the main figures in the murder trial:

The victim: Laken Riley, 22, was a UGA student until May 2023 before studying nursing at Augusta’s College of Nursing campus in Athens.

She had just made the fall dean’s list and received her honorary white coat, “symbolizing humanism, compassion, and the start of her nurse’s journey,” the nursing college said on Facebook. She was set to graduate in 2025.

On the morning of February 22, she was on her morning jog at the University of Georgia’s campus when she was killed.

A supporter holds a sign with a photo of Laken Riley before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on March 9 in Rome, Georgia.

The defendant: Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old migrant from Venezuela, has been charged with 10 counts in all: malice murder, three counts of felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, obstructing a person making an emergency call, tampering with evidence and peeping Tom, according to the indictment.

He has pleaded not guilty. If he is convicted of the most serious charges, prosecutors intend to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to court records.

Jose Ibarra has pleaded not guilty to murdering nursing student Laken Riley.

Ibarra was arrested in 2022 after entering the US illegally and was “paroled and released for further processing,” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

He also was arrested by New York City police in September 2023 and charged with “acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation,” but he was released “before a detainer could be issued,” ICE said in a news release. The NYPD said it did not have a record of his arrest.

By February 2024, Ibarra was living in Athens, Georgia – home to the University of Georgia.

The judge: Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard is a no-nonsense, silvery-white-haired jurist whose father was killed in an armed robbery.

Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard listens during the trial of Jose Ibarra on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024.

Appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2011 by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, he is no stranger to high-profile cases. A year after his appointment to the judicial circuit that covers Athens, Haggard was assigned the death-penalty trial of the admitted killer of a police officer, Jamie Hood, who represented himself.

Last week, Jose Antonio Ibarra waived his right to a trial by jury and agreed to a bench trial, in which a judge will decide his guilt or innocence.

With the prosecution in agreement, Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard approved Ibarra’s waiver. Ibarra told the judge through his translator he understood he can’t reverse his decision.

Haggard is a no-nonsense, silvery-white-haired jurist whose father was killed in an armed robbery. Appointed to the Superior Court bench in 2011 by Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, he is no stranger to high-profile cases. A year after his appointment to the judicial circuit that covers Athens, Haggard was assigned the death-penalty trial of an admitted cop killer, Jamie Hood, who represented himself.

CNN’s Rafael Romo explains why the defense may have made this decision:

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Why suspect in Laken Riley murder is getting a bench trial

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Laken Riley’s roommates and several law enforcement investigators testified Friday afternoon on the first day of the trial.

Roommates Lilly Steiner and Sofia Magana testified they became concerned about Riley because she went out for a run, but her iPhone’s location on the “Find My” feature had not changed for a while.

They went out to search the running trail area using the feature and came across an AirPod believed to be Riley’s. They photographed it and brought it home and then called UGA police.

University of Georgia Police Sgt. Kenneth Maxwell testified he found Riley’s partially nude remains about 50 feet from a running trail on campus. In video footage of the discovery, he gasped for air upon finding her and performed CPR on her lifeless body.

“It did not look as if something had unintentionally happened,” Maxwell said. “It looked more intentional, as if somebody had attempted to either remove her top, or maybe had used it to drag her.”

Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime scene specialist Daniella Stuart described injuries on the left side of Riley’s head, along with linear marks on her torso and below her underwear.

The specialist testified to finding a latent print “in the area where you would swipe to unlock,” as well as “reddish stains suspected to be blood,” on Riley’s cell phone, found among leaves at the crime scene. The specialist also recounted photographing injuries on Ibarra at the police department the following day, noting scratches and injuries on his hands, arms, neck and back.

Athens-Clarke County Police Officer Zachary Davis testified he found a jacket with tears and dark stains inside of a dumpster while investigating Riley’s death on February 22. The jacket had both Riley’s and Ibarra’s DNA on it, he testified.

Athens-Clarke County Police Officer Zachary Davis points out the jacket he collected from a dumpster on the witness stand during the trial of Jose Ibarra on Friday, Nov. 15.

“Oh sh*t. There’s hair on the buttons,” Davis said when he discovered the jacket, according to body-camera footage. “Women’s long hair wrapped up in the buttons.”