The suspect accused of killing Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus was found guilty by a judge on all charges, including premeditated murder and felony murder, on Wednesday.

He was sentenced by the judge to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the maximum possible.

While prosecutors described the evidence against the suspect as “very impressive,” the defense advanced the theory during closing arguments of the trial that the defendant may have been an accomplice but not the murderer.

Jose Ibarra, 26, was charged with killing the 22-year-old nursing student while she was out jogging after prosecutors said she “refused to be the victim of rape.” Jose Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant, was charged with malice murder and felony murder in connection with her death; this has become a call for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.

Jose Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and the case was presented over four days in an Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who handed down the verdict Wednesday shortly after the trial’s closing arguments.

Sobs could be heard in the courtroom as guilty verdicts were read on each charge.

Before announcing his decision, Haggard told the courtroom that he had written down two statements from attorneys during closing arguments.

One of these was the prosecutor’s statement saying that “the evidence is very strong and strong.”

The other was the defense attorney, who said the judge “should have put my feelings aside.”

“That’s the same thing we told jurors,” he said. “That’s the way I have to approach this issue, and that’s what I did. Both of those statements are true.”

Riley’s family addressed the court: ‘There is no end to the pain’

Riley’s family asked for a sentence of life in prison without parole as they addressed the court with tearful victim-affecting statements before the sentencing.

“There is no end to the pain, suffering and loss we have experienced or will continue to endure,” said his mother, Allyson Phillips.

He remembered Riley as “smart, hard-working, kind, thoughtful, and most importantly, a child of God.”

He called Jose Ibarra a “monster” who “took my best friend.”

“This terrible person stole all our hopes and dreams for Laken,” he said.

Riley’s sister, Lauren Phillips, said her older sister was her “biggest role model.”

“I respected him in every way,” he said. “She brought the joy into my life that I needed and never failed to make me laugh.”

She said it was “unbearable” to see her parents’ heartbreak and that she would never get closure over her sister’s murder.

“We are a broken family of three trying to figure out how to live this life with the silence and emptiness his absence leaves behind,” he said.

Riley’s father, Jason Riley, said he was “disturbed by the fear” he felt in his daughter’s final moments.

“I have to live with the fact that I couldn’t protect him when he needed me the most,” he said.

Riley’s stepfather, John Phillips, said she was “the best daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend and overall person you could ever hope to meet.”

“I implore this court, in order to protect the world from this truly evil person, to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for any reason so that he will never have the opportunity to do this to others again.” in question.

Several of Riley’s good friends also filed suit; these included three of Riley’s roommates who testified at trial that they tried to find and contact him on the day of the murder.

Connolly Huth said he used to run with Riley but has since “lost the joy of running before Laken was taken from us.”

“I live with an unbearable feeling of guilt every day that I did not accompany Laken on this journey and that it was him, not me,” she said, crying. “I hope and pray this never happens to anyone again.”

Lilly Steiner said life is “boring” without Riley.

“Laken left a tremendous legacy to everyone he touched, and I have no doubt he is still not done building it,” he said. “And that’s something Jose Ibarra can never take away.”

Sofia Magana called Riley her “chosen family” and “fearless other half” and said her heart was “filled with grief, sadness, and an overwhelming sense of loss.”

“The loss of my best friend shattered my world in ways I never thought possible,” she said through tears.

The State shows the moment parents learned Riley was dead

As part of victim impact statements before sentencing, the state showed body-worn camera footage of officers notifying Laken’s family of his death.

His mother was seen collapsing on the ground and crying.

“They put up with this,” special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge. “It was like that the day they came here looking for their daughter.”

Ross also showed video of the course, including footage of Riley running in the race.

Jose Ibarra faced a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole and a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole on the top premeditated murder charge.

In asking for the maximum sentence, Ross asked the judge to propose a sentence that would “bring comfort to this community” and “appropriately reflect the harm done in this case.”

Government says evidence is ‘clear and unambiguous’

Prosecutors called 28 witnesses to establish what they said was evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that Jose Ibarra killed Riley, who died of blunt force head trauma and asphyxia.

Ross told the court that Jose Ibarra encountered Riley on Feb. 22 during a morning walk on the Athens campus while he was on a woman-hunting trip.

Ross said Riley “fought for his life” in a struggle that caused Jose Ibarra to leave forensic evidence behind. He said digital and video evidence also showed he was the sole killer.

“The evidence in this case is overwhelming and the evidence in this case comes out loud and clear, he is Laken Riley’s killer and he killed her because she wouldn’t let him rape her,” Ross said during closing. debate on Wednesday.

A forensic expert testified that Jose Ibarra’s DNA was found under Riley’s right fingernails and that his two brothers, who lived with him in an apartment near campus, were excluded as matches.

Officers said Jose Ibarra had visible scratches on his arms when he was questioned by police a day after the murder. He also had scratches on his neck and back, and Ross said they could only have been left by Riley.

“You have to disbelieve your own eyes not to find him guilty,” Ross said.

“He marked it. He marked it for everyone to see. He marked it for you to see,” Ross told the judge.

Prosecutors said Jose Ibarra prevented Riley from calling 911 and his fingerprint was left on her phone. An FBI analyst testified that data from the Samsung phone and the Garmin watch Riley wore while running showed that the devices overlapped and were very close to the woods where Riley was found dead.

Prosecutors said Jose Ibarra was caught discarding a bloody jacket and disposable gloves near his apartment about 15 minutes after Riley’s death. The person’s face is not visible in the video, but Jose Ibarra’s roommate stated that it was him. The defendant’s brother, Diego Ibarra, also said that he identified himself as the person in the video while being questioned by the police a day after the murder.

The forensic expert said Riley’s DNA was found on the jacket and gloves. The expert said that Jose Ibarra’s DNA was also found on the jacket, while his two brothers were found as matches.

“In our work, we call this guilt consciousness; she threw those items away because she knew it was killing him, and she threw them away because she didn’t want anyone to find her,” Ross said.

The expert said his DNA was also found on the Adidas hat he wore in the video. Ross speculated that the hat was not thrown away because Jose Ibarra could not see that there was actually blood on it.

Jose Ibarra was seen on Ring footage wearing different clothes and throwing unidentified items into a bag that was never found by police several hours after the murder. Ross speculated that the bag contained clothes she had previously worn, which also resembled the clothes she wore in a selfie posted on Snapchat that morning.

“Digital evidence that an hour before he left his house, condemning himself, he posted selfies of himself basically wearing rapist attire,” Ross said.

Defense offers alternative theory

The defense called three witnesses, including a neighbor who said Diego Ibarra threatened him the night Riley was killed.

The defense said they planned to call two more witnesses, including Diego Ibarra, who is in federal custody awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a charge of having a fake green card, but his attorney did not want him to testify.

“The evidence in this case, while overwhelming, is circumstantial,” defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck told the judge.

Beck told the judge that they recommended Jose Ibarra have a bench trial, “trusting that your honor can do it and trusting that your judge will put emotions aside in this case and just consider the evidence.”

He argued there were doubts about what was tested and said the judge should have been “skeptical” of the DNA evidence.

He presented an “alternative theory” that Diego Ibarra was actually Riley’s killer and that Jose Ibarra was complicit in covering up the evidence.

“Maybe he’s throwing away the jacket like Diego said, maybe he’s protecting his brother’s rights,” Beck said.

“Under this theory, Jose would of course be guilty of tampering, but that theory does not prove that he was present or involved in the murder of Laken Riley,” he said.

Since the three gloves were thrown, “it shows that there was more than one pair of hands wearing these gloves,” he said.

Upon rebuttal, Ross called the defense’s theory “hopeless” and a “mischaracterization of the evidence.”

“There is no reasonable explanation for all of this evidence other than that he is guilty of every single count in this indictment,” Ross said.

During interrogation, Diego Ibarra told officers that he was asleep when the murder occurred. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent handling the case testified early Wednesday that there was no evidence to contradict that statement.

Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who authorities say entered the United States illegally in 2022, waived his right to testify during the hearing. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including malice murder and three counts of felony murder.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment included aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to commit rape, obstructing or obstructing a person from making an emergency telephone call, and tampering with evidence. The second charge was that he “knowingly concealed” evidence related to the murder (the jacket and gloves).

Jose Ibarra was also found guilty of surveillance. Prosecutors said Riley spied the UGA graduate student from her window in the hours before her murder, and that the incident “illustrates her state of mind” that day.

The student stated that he called the police when he heard someone trying to open his door.

Ross said the person at the student’s home was wearing clothing similar to what Jose Ibarra was wearing in the Snapchat selfie posted earlier that morning, including an Adidas hat.