Details revealed on Laken Riley killing as suspect is indicted

ATHENS, Ga. - The man accused of killing Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus was indicted by a Clarke County grand jury.

The grand jury indicted Jose Ibarra, a 26-year-old from Venezuela, on several charges — including malice murder, three counts of felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with the intent to rape, aggravated battery, tampering with evidence, hindering or obstructing a person from making an emergency telephone call and being a peeping Tom.

The indictment also shares new details about the alleged crime. The document claims Ibarra struck Laken Riley’s head multiple times with a rock, “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to the Grand Jurors.” After the killing, Ibarra allegedly hid a jacket and gloves in a cover-up attempt.

The same day Riley died, the indictment says Ibarra went to UGA’s University Village Housing Building S and “spied upon and invaded the privacy of” an unknown person.

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Riley was found dead on Feb. 22 in a wooded area behind Lake Herrick on the UGA campus. Her roommate called the university’s police department after she didn’t return home from a morning run at the school’s intramural fields.

Ibarra was detained a day later at an apartment complex just south of several trails that lead to where Riley’s body was found.

UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark said officials believe Ibarra didn’t know Riley, calling it an alleged “crime of opportunity.”

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