Suspect in homicide of Georgia nursing pupil entered U.S. illegally, had beforehand been arrested, ICE says

The suspect in the homicide of Georgia nursing pupil Laken Hope Riley entered the U.S. illegally from Venezuela and had been beforehand arrested in New York, officers mentioned Sunday.

The suspect, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra, was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Safety on Sept. 8, 2022, after he unlawfully entered the U.S. close to El Paso, Texas, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement mentioned in an announcement.

Ibarra was launched by U.S. border officers pending a assessment of his immigration case, ICE mentioned. He was arrested a bit of over a 12 months later, on Sept. 14, 2023, by New York Police Division officers and charged with appearing in a way to injure a baby lower than 17 and a motorized vehicle license violation, in line with the ICE assertion. The assertion didn’t elaborate on the small print of his alleged crimes.

The suspect was arrested once more on Friday in reference to the homicide of Riley after her physique was found in a wooded space on the Athens campus of the College of Georgia, police mentioned at a information briefing Friday.

ICE has requested to detain Ibarra if and when he is launched from legal custody so it may search his deportation.

Riley, 22, was discovered after a buddy instructed police she hadn’t returned from a morning run. She died of blunt power trauma, Jeffrey Clarke, the police chief for the College of Georgia Police Division, mentioned on the briefing. She was a nursing pupil on the Athens campus of Augusta College, in line with college President Brooks Keel.

Clark mentioned the suspect, who was not a pupil at UGA, is being held on expenses that embrace malice homicide, felony homicide, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping and hindering a 911 name.

“At the moment the investigation means that that they had no relationship,” Clarke mentioned. “He didn’t know her in any respect. I believe this was a criminal offense of alternative the place he noticed a person and unhealthy issues occurred.”

—Camilo Montoya-Galvez and The Related Press contributed reporting.