Laken Riley murder: Video shows man hiding bloody jacket, gloves minutes after student death, prosecutors say

WARNING: GRAPHIC

FIRST ON FOX – Georgia prosecutors are pushing back against Laken Riley murder suspect Jose Ibarra's request to bar certain evidence from the case, alleging that there are specific items such as a bloody jacket, gloves and a fingerprint tying him to the brutal crime.

Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of attacking and killing Riley, 22, while she was out for a run along dirt trails on the University of Georgia campus in Athens on the morning of Feb. 22.

Last month, Ibarra asked an Athens-Clarke County court for a hearing to suppress a list of evidentiary items, including cellphones, a buccal swab and social media accounts, arguing that those items were unlawfully collected by law enforcement, and detectives entered his residence without a search warrant.

Prosecutors say law enforcement entered Ibarra's Athens apartment near UGA's campus — which he shared with his two brothers, also living in the United States illegally from Venezuela — because they feared the four people who were inside the apartment less than 12 hours after Riley's murder might "destroy evidence," court documents filed this week state.

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"The State anticipates that the evidence will show that shortly after the murder of Laken Riley, local law enforcement officers were looking for a person or persons depicted in two different videos. One video was taken from near and around University Village housing building ‘S’ that was associated with the peeping Tom incident," prosecutors wrote. "The other video was taken at the dumpster of the apartment complex that abuts UGA property and is less than one half mile away from where Laken Riley was murdered."

A Georgia grand jury in May indicted Ibarra on counts of malice murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated battery, obstructing or hindering a person from making a 911 call, tampering with evidence and being a "peeping Tom."

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The suspect is accused of causing Riley's death by inflicting blunt-force trauma to her head and "asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to jurors," the indictment states. He is also accused of going to a residence on UGA's campus, where he "peeped through" a window and "spied upon" a university staff member on the same day he allegedly killed Riley, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors say the video depicting a person near a dumpster at Ibarra's apartment complex near UGA is clear and "depicts a Latino male disposing of a bloody jacket with long dark hair on it and bloody gloves less than 30 minutes after the murder of Laken Riley and within a half mile from her body."

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"The dumpster video further shows the Latino male was wearing a black baseball cap with a white adidas logo, white script underneath the logo, and a sticker on the bill of the hat," prosecutors stated. 

Less than 12 hours after the man in the video is seen disposing of the bloody jacket and gloves, an Athens-Clarke County Sheriff's Office sergeant was patrolling Ibarra's apartment complex and "saw in public, in plain view, walking in the apartment complex in broad daylight, a Latino male who was wearing the 'identical' hat that was seen in the dumpster video."

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The officer began speaking to the man in the hat, who identified himself as Diego Ibarra, Jose Ibarra's older brother, who presented a fraudulent green card to the officer. The sergeant detained Diego until another officer, who was fluent in Spanish, arrived to speak with Diego.

At that point, authorities determined "that there was probable cause to believe that evidence of the crime of murder could be located inside the apartment and decided that exigency required them to secure the apartment pending the application of a search warrant for fear of additional destruction of evidence. This decision was a reasonable one that does not offend the Fourth Amendment," prosecutors wrote in court documents.

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"To require the officers in this case to remain outside Defendant’s apartment while unknown parties inside continued to destroy evidence of the murder as the officers obtained a search warrant would defy common sense and be patently unreasonable," prosecutors continued.

They are also arguing against Jose Ibarra's request to exclude testimony from a witness who performed DNA testing during Riley's autopsy, alleging that the results "did not exclude Defendant, but also did not exclude another known individual associated with the case."

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Prosecutors say the DNA evidence in Jose Ibarra's case "come from significant and relevant items of evidence such as: Laken Riley’s fingernails, the discarded bloody gloves, the black adidas baseball cap, and the blue ‘hoodie’ style jacket and all report a match statistic that will aid the jury in its determination of the guilt or innocence of Defendant for the crimes charged in the indictment."

Additionally, detectives apparently identified Jose Ibarra's "thumb print on Laken Riley’s cellular telephone."

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The 26-year-old suspect illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News. His older brother, Diego Ibarra, is charged with green card fraud and had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S., according to federal court documents.

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UGA said in a February statement following Riley's death that the school has invested $16 million "over the last eight years to hire more police officers, install more security cameras, enhance lighting, establish a nightly rideshare program, and create a UGASafe app."

Since February, the school has committed more than $7.3 million to more safety measures, including a 20% increase to UGA's police budget, emergency blue lights, and a university-focused rideshare program.

Ibarra's trial is scheduled to take place in November.