Prosecutors in the Laken Riley case are fighting back against the murder suspect’s bid to suppress certain evidence – including videos authorities claim show the accused ditching key evidence shortly after the nursing student was killed.
Venezuelan migrant Jose Ibarra, 26, pled not guilty in May to 10 counts connected with the murder of Riley, 22, who was killed Feb. 22 while out for her morning run on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.
In August, Ibarra requested a hearing to potentially suppress a list of evidence, including cell phones, a cheek swab and social media accounts – that he claimed were unlawfully obtained by the police when they entered his apartment without a search warrant.
In a new filing submitted this week, prosecutors argued they had grounds to enter Ibarra’s property in part due to two videos that matched his description, Fox News reported.
The first involved an alleged incident in which Ibarra was looking through a window of an on-campus apartment and spying on a university staff member the same day Riley was killed. “One video was taken from near and around University Village housing building ‘S’ that was associated with the peeping Tom incident,” the filing stated.
The second video was taken from near Ibarra’s Athens apartment complex, prosecutors said.
“The other video was taken at the Dumpster of the apartment complex that abuts UGA property and is less than one-half mile away from where Laken Riley was murdered.”
The footage taken at the Dumpster, “depicts a Latino male disposing of a bloody jacket with long dark hair on it and bloody gloves less than 30 minutes after the murder of Laken Riley and within a half mile from her body,” the filing said.
“The Dumpster video further shows the Latino male was wearing a black baseball cap with a white Adidas logo, white script underneath the logo, and a sticker on the bill of the hat,” prosecutors said.
Less than 12 hours later, Athens-Clarke County Sheriff’s Office sergeant supposedly came upon a man near the apartment complex wearing an “identical’” hat.
The officer spoke with the man, who identified himself as Jose Ibarra’s brother, Diego, Fox reported.
Diego Ibarra was detained until another officer, who was fluent in Spanish, arrived at the scene.
At that point, the authorities believed they had probable cause that evidence of Riley’s murder could be inside the apartment that Jose and Diego Ibarra shared with a third brother.
The police couldn’t waste time seeking a warrant, the prosecution claimed, but decided quick action was required “to secure the apartment pending the application of a search warrant for fear of additional destruction of evidence.”
“To require the officers in this case to remain outside defendant’s apartment while unknown parties inside continued to destroy evidence of the murder as the officers obtained a search warrant would defy common sense and be patently unreasonable,” prosecutors added.
The prosecution also shot down Ibarra’s request to exclude testimony from a witness who performed DNA testing during Riley’s autopsy, Fox noted.
The DNA evidence in the case came from Riley’s fingernails, discarded bloody gloves, a black Adidas baseball cap and a blue jacket, the prosecution claimed.
All of the material, they said, “report a match statistic that will aid the jury in its determination of the guilt or innocence of defendant for the crimes charged in the indictment.”
Ibarra was also supposedly identified via a thumbprint that was left on Riley’s cell phone.