The violent Tren de Aragua gangbanger who brutally murdered Georgia nursing pupil Laken Riley has requested a choose for a brand new trial after he was sentenced to life in jail final month for the crime which shocked the nation.
Legal professionals for Jose Ibarra, an unlawful immigrant from Venezuela, submitted a two-page court docket submitting Tuesday asking Choose H. Patrick Haggard to put aside the decision and penalty he determined in the course of the bench trial.
Haggard’s choice was “opposite to legislation” and “to the proof” and the choose “dedicated different errors of legislation that necessitate a brand new trial,” the submitting alleges.
The court docket papers don’t elaborate additional however do ask the choose to depart the door open for the protection to “overview the information and circumstances” at trial with a view to probably flesh the request out additional at a later date.
The movement for a brand new trial is a obligatory first step for the protection group to take earlier than they’ll file an attraction.
On Nov. 20, Haggard convicted Ibarra of all 10 counts he confronted, together with counts of homicide, malice homicide, kidnapping with bodily damage, aggravated assault with intent to rape and Peeping Tom expenses.
Over the course of a four-day trial — that includes 29 prosecution witnesses and simply three protection witnesses — prosecutors argued that Ibarra, 26, brutally beat and asphyxiated Riley, 22, on Feb. 22 whereas she was out jogging close to the College of Georgia campus in Athens.
Riley — who’d lately transferred from the College of Georgia to Augusta College to check nursing — allegedly fought for her life for roughly 18 minutes in opposition to her killer, whom prosecutors mentioned was planning to sexually assault her however for the fierce struggle she put up.
Ibarra’s fingerprint was discovered on Riley’s telephone and his DNA was underneath her fingernails, prosecutors say the proof confirmed.
However Ibarra’s legal professionals mentioned the fingerprint and DNA proof evaluation was unreliable and tried to pin the homicide on Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, claiming Jose’s physique didn’t match the one seen on surveillance footage.
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