A Georgia judge has denied Jose Ibarra’s request for a new trial, refusing to disturb the 2024 conviction of the Venezuelan national sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of nursing student Laken Riley.
Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard issued the ruling Monday, writing that the evidence against Ibarra was both “overwhelming and powerful.”
Ibarra was found guilty on ten charges, including murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault with intent to rape. He killed Riley on February 22, 2024, while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. She was 22 years old.
Ibarra entered the United States illegally in September 2022 through El Paso, Texas, a known entry corridor used by the Tren de Aragua gang. Federal immigration authorities released him into the country while his immigration case was pending.
He traveled to New York City, where he lived in a taxpayer-funded city shelter. While there, he was arrested for riding a gas-powered moped with a child and no helmet, but was released without ICE placing a detainer on him. Ibarra later relocated to Georgia, where his brother was living. It was there he attacked and killed Riley.
Prosecutors said Riley fought back, refusing “to be his rape victim.” Ibarra “bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly,” according to the New York Post.
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, has spoken publicly about her daughter’s killing. “This happened to my family… and Laken was the most responsible, hardworking, kind, selfless, beautiful Christian and she wasn’t somebody that put herself in bad positions, she didn’t make bad choices, she was just a good girl,” Phillips said.
“She’s one in a ton of people that have suffered at the hands of illegal immigrants, she’s not the only one,” Phillips added.
Riley’s murder ignited a national debate over immigration enforcement and the consequences of sanctuary city policies. President Donald Trump signed the Laken Riley Act in January 2025, requiring federal detention of illegal immigrants who are arrested for violent crimes or theft.
Trump honored Riley’s parents at a White House event earlier this year alongside other Angel Families.
With Haggard’s ruling, Ibarra remains sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.
