The suspect’s trial will begin on Friday accused of murder Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, is on the University of Georgia campus.

Suspect Jose Ibarra, waived his right He will have a jury trial this week. Judge H. Patrick Haggard granted the defense’s request for a bench trial Tuesday, one day before jury selection began.

The case will now be presented to Haggard, who will decide in an Athens-Clarke County courtroom.

Ibarra, 26, faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted. He pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder, felony murder and other crimes.

Police said they believe Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who authorities say entered the U.S. illegally in 2022, did not know Riley and that it was a “crime of opportunity.”

Riley’s brutal death became an event rallying cry Many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump, have voiced support for immigration reform. Trump mentioned her by name as recently as Nov. 3 during his final campaign address to voters in the battleground state in Macon, Georgia.

Augusta University student Riley was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on February 22 after he did not return from a run. allegations in the indictment Ibarra killed her by “blunt force trauma to her head and strangling her” and hit her with a rock “multiple times,” severely disfiguring her head.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to commit rape, hindering or obstructing a person from making an emergency telephone call, and tampering with evidence. The second charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence such as a jacket and gloves, implicating the crime of malicious murder.

Ibarra was also charged with voyeurism. The indictment alleges that on the day he was killed, Riley was spying from the window of a different person living in an apartment on campus. The judge last month denied a request to separate that charge from the case.

Haggard also denied the defense’s plea request. change of venue in high profile situation.

Ibarra has been held without bail in the Clarke County Jail since his arrest on Feb. 23.