{"id":25297,"date":"2024-11-21T15:08:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T20:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=25297"},"modified":"2024-11-21T15:10:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T20:10:11","slug":"laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","title":{"rendered":"Laken Riley’s mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
CourtTV \/ YouTube | Inset: Laken Riley \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mother of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant earlier this year, wept as she begged the judge to sentence the killer to life in prison, asking that he not receive mercy when he showed none to her daughter or the family he destroyed.<\/p>\n

Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to life in prison without parole for Riley\u2019s murder\u00a0Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The verdict by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard marked the conclusion of a\u00a0bench trial<\/a>\u00a0that began last week.<\/p>\n

Haggard sentenced Ibarra to the maximum possible punishments for multiple charges, including kidnapping, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstruction of a 911 call, tampering with evidence and a peeping tom charge. The judge ordered that the defendant serve each sentence consecutively, according to\u00a0CNN<\/a>, condemning Ibarra to two life sentences and 27 years in prison.<\/p>\n

In a victim\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0read before the court Wednesday, Allyson Phillips called her daughter a \u201cchild of God\u201d who demonstrated her love for the Lord through missionary work and caring for the elderly.<\/p>\n

The mother declared that there has been no end to the pain she and her family have endured since Feb. 22, the day of her daughter\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n

Riley, a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, never returned home after she left that morning to go jogging around the University of Georgia campus. Prosecutors argued that Ibarra, who entered the country illegally in 2022, killed the young woman by bashing her skull and asphyxiating her after attempting to sexually assault her.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that horrific day, my precious daughter was attacked,\u201d Riley\u2019s mom stated. \u201cBeaten and show no mercy. She fought for her life and dignity and to save herself from being brutally raped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sick, twisted, and evil coward showed no regard for Laken or human life,\u201d she said, referring to Ibarra. \u201cWe are asking that the same be done to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillips urged the judge to sentence Ibarra to life in prison without the possibility of parole, stating that this is the sentence Ibarra inflicted on her and the rest of Riley\u2019s family on Feb. 22. The grieving mother wept as she noted that the defendant had robbed the family of its \u201chopes and dreams for Laken,\u201d such as watching her graduate nursing school or become a mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m asking you to please give Jose Ibarra the same thing he gave us when he made the choice to take Laken\u2019s life and destroy ours,\u201d Phillips cried. \u201cHe showed no mercy on Laken when she was begging for her life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m asking you to please give this monster life without any chance of parole so that he never gets the chance to hurt anyone else ever again,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Ibarra\u2019s attorneys argued that the prosecution\u2019s evidence \u2014 traces of Riley\u2019s DNA under the defendant\u2019s fingernails and his thumbprint on her phone \u2014 was circumstantial,\u00a0CBS News<\/a>\u00a0reported. The defense claimed that the defendant\u2019s brother, Diego Ibarra, who worked at the University of Georgia dining hall, could have committed the crime.<\/p>\n

During the bench trial,\u00a0prosecutors<\/a>\u00a0highlighted additional pieces of evidence, including Riley\u2019s smartwatch and iPhone. The location on Riley\u2019s phone places her at the crime scene while the smartwatch tracked her slowing heart rate. Cell towers also picked up Ibarra\u2019s phone near the area where Riley was killed.<\/p>\n

John Phillips, Riley’s stepfather, spoke before Ibarra\u2019s sentencing on Wednesday, referring to Riley as a \u201cshining beacon of light in the life of everyone that knew her.\u201d The stepfather read one of Riley\u2019s last journal entries, in which the young woman wrote a letter to her future husband.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I pray that you know that it is with my full faith and trust in God that I know this relationship has been handcrafted by Him,\u2019\u201d Phillips read. “I pray that we continue to glorify the Lord, prioritize Him in every aspect of our lives, and raise our future family to be God-fearing Christians as well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s stepdad offered the journal entry as an example of the kind of woman she was.\u00a0 He vowed to keep alive the hope she gave to her loved ones. While Phillips promised that Riley\u2019s loved ones would carry this hope \u201cin [Riley\u2019s] name,\u201d he asked the judge to prevent another tragedy like this one by sentencing Ibarra to life in prison.<\/p>\n

\n

This article originally appeared in Christian Post<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mother of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant earlier this year, wept as she begged the judge to sentence the killer to life in prison, asking that he not receive mercy when he showed none to her daughter or the family he destroyed. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was found…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":25291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2444,418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nLaken Riley's mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Laken Riley's mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The mother of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant earlier this year, wept as she begged the judge to sentence the killer to life in prison, asking that he not receive mercy when he showed none to her daughter or the family he destroyed. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was found…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-21T20:08:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-21T20:10:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/jose-ibarra_credit-CourtTV-YouTube_Inset-Laken-Riley-Facebook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Samantha Kamman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Laken Riley's mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Laken Riley's mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison","og_description":"The mother of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant earlier this year, wept as she begged the judge to sentence the killer to life in prison, asking that he not receive mercy when he showed none to her daughter or the family he destroyed. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was found…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-11-21T20:08:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-21T20:10:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/jose-ibarra_credit-CourtTV-YouTube_Inset-Laken-Riley-Facebook.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Samantha Kamman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","name":"Laken Riley's mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/jose-ibarra_credit-CourtTV-YouTube_Inset-Laken-Riley-Facebook.jpg","datePublished":"2024-11-21T20:08:51+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-21T20:10:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/jose-ibarra_credit-CourtTV-YouTube_Inset-Laken-Riley-Facebook.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/11\/jose-ibarra_credit-CourtTV-YouTube_Inset-Laken-Riley-Facebook.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"CourtTV \/ YouTube | Inset: Laken Riley \/ Facebook"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/11\/laken-rileys-mom-confronts-killer-jose-ibarra-sentenced-to-life-in-prison#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Laken Riley’s mom confronts killer; Jose Ibarra sentenced to life in prison"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e","name":"rdewing","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/61e\/61e772313b3ddff45ee0c1a275e8dfc5x96.jpg","caption":"rdewing"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/rdewing"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25297"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25306,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25297\/revisions\/25306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}