(NewsNation) — A migrant who was found guilty of murdering a Georgia nursing student is asking for a new trial two weeks after his conviction.
Jose Ibarra‘s lawyers filed a motion Tuesday requesting a new trial in Athens-Clarke County Superior Court. The document alleges that the verdict is “contrary to law” and “contrary to the evidence” and suggests that the court committed legal errors that warrant a retrial.
After four days of the bench trial, Ibarra, 26, from Venezuela was sentenced to life without parole and received additional prison sentences to be served consecutively.
Ibarra was found guilty of all charges against him, including one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and being a peeping tom.
The filing leaves room for potential future amendments, with the defense reserving “the right to amend and supplement this Motion after a full and thorough review of the facts and circumstances” of the trial.
Family and friends of Laken Riley offered emotional victim statements ahead of the judge’s sentencing, describing the loss they have lived with since her death.
Prosecutors decided before trial not to seek the death penalty.
The evidence shows that Ibarra killed Riley “because she would not let him rape her,” the prosecutors argued during the trial.
Ibarra, who Customs and Border Patrol sources tell NewsNation has ties to the Tren De Aragua gang, pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, battery and tampering with evidence charges.
Riley’s killing added fuel to the national debate over immigration when federal authorities said Ibarra illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case. President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans blamed Riley’s death on the policies of Democratic President Joe Biden.
Laken Riley killed while on a run
Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus in February and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles east of Atlanta.
On Feb. 22, Riley was reported missing when she didn’t return home from a run. Investigators later discovered her body in a forested area on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. UGA police arrested Ibarra the next day.
Before prosecutors wrapped up their case, attorneys revealed new video from the last time 22-year-old Riley was seen alive, showing her running on a trail on the University of Georgia’s campus just minutes before she dialed 911. Another video, which the prosecution said showed Ibarra on the morning Riley died, allegedly showed Ibarra lurking around the trail and trying to break into a young woman’s apartment.
Approximately one hour after this video was taken, prosecutors said, Ibarra and Riley’s cell phones pinged at identical locations near the scene of the crime.
Calls and texts from Riley’s phone revealed a minute-by-minute timeline of her final moments. At 8:55 a.m. that morning, Riley texted her mother, “Good morning. I’m about to go for a run if you’re free to talk.”
Then, at 9:03 a.m., Riley called her mom, who did not pick up. Riley’s moms soon followed up with several calls and texts that her daughter did not answer.
“Please call me, I’m worried sick about you,” one of those texts by Riley’s mother said.
To close their case, the state asked a DNA specialist what she discovered when examining Riley’s fingernails. The DNA specialist said fingernail samples matched a profile of Ibarra’s blood found on a jacket found in a dumpster.
Riley was wearing “tight running clothes that are designed not to move,” prosecutor Sheila Ross said. When her body was found, the waistband of her running tights was pulled down and her jacket, shirt and sports bra were pulled up, evidence that her clothes were displaced by an attempted sexual assault, not by dragging, Ross said.
Defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge that the evidence was circumstantial and did not definitively prove Ibarra’s guilt.
“Because the evidence is subject to more than one interpretation, it is not beyond a reasonable doubt,” she said.
Beck tried to cast doubt on a method of DNA testing used to test some of the evidence. She noted that when a fingerprint found on Riley’s phone was entered into a database, Ibarra didn’t come back as a match, and a specialist visually matched the prints.
Beck said there was “doubt based on what was tested and on what was not tested” because investigators did not test some of the evidence they had gathered.
NewsNation’s Alex Caprariello and The Associated Press contributed to this report.