The man accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus has been indicted on 10 charges.
Jose Antonio Ibarra is charged with malice murder, three counts of felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with the intent to rape, aggravated battery, tampering with evidence, hindering or obstructing a person from making an emergency telephone call, and being a “Peeping Tom.”
An Athens-Clarke County Grand Jury handed down the indictment this week. It reveals new details about the alleged crime.
According to Atlanta News First, the document claims Ibarra struck Laken Riley’s head multiple times with a rock, “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to the Grand Jurors.” After the killing, Ibarra allegedly hid a jacket and gloves in a coverup attempt.
The same day Riley died, the indictment says Ibarra went to UGA’s University Village Housing Building S and “spied upon and invaded the privacy of” an unknown person.
Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead on Feb. 22 in a wooded area behind Lake Herrick on the school’s campus. Her roommate called the university’s police department after she didn’t return home from a morning run at the school’s intramural fields.
Police detained Ibarra a day later at an apartment complex just south of several trails that lead to where Riley’s body was found.
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark said officials believe Ibarra didn’t know Riley, calling it a “crime of opportunity.”
Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez brought in Special Prosecutor Shelia Ross from the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council (PAC) to prosecute the case.
