A Georgia grand jury indicted the man accused of killing 22-year-old student Laken Riley on 10 counts, including intentional murder and kidnapping, according to an indictment filed Tuesday in Clarke County Superior Court.
The indictment formally charges José Antonio Ibarra with Riley’s murder, which authorities described as a crime of opportunity. Ibarra is charged with three counts of felony murder, one count of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape and “peeping tom,” among other charges .
The public defender’s office representing Ibarra declined to comment to NBC News when contacted by phone Wednesday.
Riley was a nursing student at the Athens campus of Augusta University College of Nursing. She went jogging on Feb. 22 and was later found dead with “visible injuries” in a wooded area behind Herrick Lake on the University of Georgia campus.
Riley’s cause of death was attributed to blunt force trauma, police said.
University Police Chief Jeff Clark said at the time that it did not appear Ibarra knew Riley, adding that it appeared to be a “crime of opportunity, where he saw a individual and bad things happened.”
Ibarra is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the United States illegally in 2022 near El Paso, Texas, officials said. He lived in an apartment less than a mile from the University of Georgia and had failed to appear in court on an earlier shoplifting charge.
Investigators identified Ibarra as a suspect using a photo from a surveillance camera because he was wearing a distinctive Adidas hat. The Associated Press reported citing a federal affidavit.
Riley’s father, Jason Riley, told NBC News in March that he feared that Ibarra’s immigration status had politicized his daughter’s murder, overshadowing the narrative rather than focusing on his daughter’s identity.
“I think it’s being used politically to get these votes,” he said. “It makes me angry. I feel like, you know, they’re just using my daughter’s name for this. And she was way better than that, and she should be raised for the person she is . She was an angel.
At the same time, he said his daughter’s death opened discussions about border security and the victimization of women. He would prefer it to be “not so political.”
“If everyone could live like Laken,” he said, “the world would be a better place.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
