The defense team for Jose Ibarra started making its case in the trial for Laken Riley’s murder on Tuesday. They called two witnesses whose evidence was meant to raise questions about the prosecution’s version of events on the day Riley was slain and to imply that Ibarra’s brother might have been involved.
Joseph Clementi, the first witness for the defense, claimed that on the day of the murder, he was running along the same path as Riley. He informed police in his testimony that he observed a man on the trail who attracted his eye because, unlike other persons in the area that morning, he was not wearing the usual athletic attire.
He testified on Tuesday that the person appeared to be aimlessly strolling and was dressed in really dark attire.
It seems that Clementi’s evidence was intended to cast doubt on the prosecution’s timeline. According to the prosecution, at approximately 9:44 a.m., Ibarra was seen on camera throwing a jacket splattered with Riley’s blood into a dumpster close to his house after killing her. According to Clementi’s testimony, he spotted the man on the running trail at some point between 9:46 and 9:48 in the morning.
Clementi acknowledged under cross-examination that he was unable to identify the individual he had seen. He also testified that, contrary to Ibarra’s reported attire that day, he told police that the individual he observed might have been wearing khaki pants.
In a case that became a focal point of the national immigration debate, Ibarra, 26, a Venezuelan national, is charged with killing Riley, 22, on the morning of February 22, as she was out for a jog close to the University of Georgia campus in Athens. He faces three charges: aggravated assault with purpose to rape, malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, felony murder, and peeping Tom. He faces a life sentence without the chance of release if found guilty.
The prosecution rested Tuesday afternoon after calling a procession of forensic specialists to testify regarding the collecting and testing of DNA and other evidence. The prosecution used a mix of forensic, digital, and video evidence to support its case. Additionally, the medical examiner who conducted Riley’s autopsy testified.
The defense team for Ibarra has referred to the evidence as circumstantial, claiming that Riley could have been killed by someone else, notably Ibarra’s older brother Diego.
The defense called a woman who shared an apartment building with the brothers to support that claim. According to her testimony on Tuesday, Diego Ibarra threatened to “kill you, too,” if she spoke to the police.
On the evening of February 22, Stephanie Slaton and Diego Ibarra were sitting outside their apartments discussing Riley’s murder earlier that day when police surrounded the area and spoke to them for a short while. She claimed that when the cops departed, Diego Ibarra, who does not speak English well, used a translation program to speak into his phone in Spanish and then displayed to her what she thought was an English-translated message.
She stated in her testimony that the message read, “If you tell them, I will tell them you did it and then I will kill you, too.”
But when she spoke to law enforcement officers under cross-examination, the woman admitted to drinking that day and the following day. She also acknowledged that she and Diego Ibarra had a sexual relationship and that she was angry that he might have been seeing someone else. She also said that Diego Ibarra seemed unaware of what had transpired and that she was the one who informed him about the murder that evening.
Diego Ibarra was also called by the defense to testify on Tuesday, but he chose not to do so because his lawyer for a federal immigration issue was not there. Whether he will testify on Wednesday is unclear.
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