ATHENS, Ga.— A man on Tuesday waived his right to a jury trial in the killing of a man Georgia nursing studenta case that became Flashpoint in national immigration debate.

Jose Ibarra was charged with the February murder of Laken Hope Riley, whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus. A. 10 count indictment Ibarra claimed that he hit the 22-year-old Augusta University School of Nursing student in the head, strangled her, and planned to sexually assault her.

Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty, but said in a court filing that they planned to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Shortly after his arrest, federal immigration officials said Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen, entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to remain there to pursue his immigration case. Immigration was already a major issue in the presidential campaign, and Republicans Riley’s murder seizedNow President-elect Donald Trump blames Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death.

Biden talked about border security in his State of the Union address a few weeks after Riley’s killing. He mentioned Riley by name.

Riley’s body was found near the running tracks on February 22 after a friend notified police. I didn’t come back from my morning run. Police said his murder appeared to be a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and is being held without bail in the Athens-Clarke County Jail.

The indictment charged Ibarra with one count of premeditated murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, interfering with an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and spying on Tom.

The indictment states that on the day Riley was killed, Ibarra looked into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which was the basis for Tom’s surveillance charge.

There were defense lawyers I tried unsuccessfully moving the trial out of Athens, handling the spying Tom charge separately, and excluding some evidence and expert testimony.