The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus has waived his right to a jury trial.

The judge granted the defense’s request for a hearing on suspect Jose Ibarra at a hearing in Athens-Clarke County on Tuesday.

The trial is scheduled to begin Friday before Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will rule on the case.

His death became a groundbreaking call for immigration reform from many conservatives, including now President-elect Donald Trump. Trump mentioned her by name as recently as Nov. 3 when he visited Macon, Georgia, in his final speech to voters in the battleground state.

Jury selection in the case was planned to begin on Wednesday.

When Haggard asked if he understood the jury trial waiver and whether it was “freely, knowingly and intelligently signed and considered,” Ibarra said yes.

The defense also said it agreed with their client’s decision to waive a jury trial and confirmed that the form was properly translated into Spanish by a court translator on Ibarra’s behalf.

Last month, Haggard denied the defense’s request for a change of venue in the high-profile case.

Ibarra, 26, was indicted in May by an Athens Clarke County grand jury on charges of premeditated murder, felony murder and other crimes. He did not accept the accusations.

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. The indictment alleges that Ibarra killed her by “blunt force trauma to her head and strangulation” and severely disfigured her head by hitting her with a rock “multiple times.”

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.

He 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 also rejected a request to remove that charge from the case.

Ibarra was denied bail following his arrest on Feb. 23 and is currently being held in the Clarke County Jail.

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