Laken Riley murder: Georgia video shows man hiding bloody objects, prosecutor says

NOTE: DRAFTY

FIRST ON FOX – Georgia prosecutors are opposing Laken Riley murder suspect Jose Ibarra’s motion to exclude certain evidence from the case, saying there are specific items, such as a bloody jacket, gloves and a fingerprint, that link him to the brutal crime.

Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of assaulting and killing Riley, 22, as she jogged along dirt paths in University of Georgia Athens Campus morning of February 22nd.

Last month, Ibarra asked the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court to hold a hearing on a series of pieces of evidence, including cellphones, a cheek swab and social media accounts, that he argued were illegally collected by law enforcement and that detectives entered his home without a search warrant.

Prosecutors say law enforcement officers raided Ibarra’s Athens apartment near the UGA campus — which he shared with two brothers who were also in the United States illegally from Venezuela — because they feared the four people who were in the apartment less than 12 hours after Riley’s murder might “destroy evidence,” according to court documents filed this week.

LAKEN RILEY MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT OF GEORGIA STUDENT’S MURDER ASKS FOR SOME EVIDENCE TO BE HIDDEN

“The State anticipates that the evidence will show that shortly after the murder of Laken Riley, local law enforcement officers were searching for the person or persons depicted in two separate videos. One video was taken in and around the University Village “S” apartment building associated with the peeping tom incident,” prosecutors wrote. “The second video was taken in a dumpster at an apartment complex that is adjacent to the UGA property and located less than one-half mile from the scene of Laken Riley’s murder.”

In May, a Georgia grand jury indicted Ibarra on charges of aggravated murder, two counts of kidnapping causing bodily harm, two counts of assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated battery, hindering or preventing an emergency call, tampering with evidence and being a “voyeur.”

LAKEN RILEY MURDER SUSPECT CHARGED

The suspect is accused of causing Riley’s death by inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and “strangulating her in a manner unknown to the jury,” the indictment reads. He is also accused of going to residence on UGA campuswhere he “peeked through” a window and “spied on” a university employee the same day he allegedly killed Riley, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors say the footage of a person standing near a dumpster at the Ibarra apartment complex near UGA is clear and “depicts a Hispanic male disposing of a bloody jacket with long, dark hair and bloody gloves less than 30 minutes after the murder of Laken Riley and within a half-mile of her body.”

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“The dumpster footage also shows the Latino man was wearing a black baseball cap with a white Adidas logo, white lettering underneath the logo and a sticker on the brim of the hat,” prosecutors said.

Less than 12 hours after the man in the video discards his bloody jacket and gloves, an Athens-Clarke County Sheriff’s Office sergeant was patrolling Ibarra’s apartment complex and “saw a Hispanic male walking around the apartment complex in broad daylight wearing an ‘identical’ hat to the one seen in the Dumpster footage.”

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The officer began talking to a man in a hat who introduced himself as Diego Ibarra, the older brother of Jose Ibarra, who had presented the officer with a fake green card. The sergeant detained Diego until another officer who spoke Spanish fluently arrived to talk to Diego.

At that point, authorities determined “there was probable cause to believe that evidence of the crime of murder might be present in the apartment and determined that a pressing need required securing the apartment until a search warrant could be served for fear of further destruction of evidence. This decision was reasonable and does not violate the Fourth Amendment,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

WATCH: GEORGIA INVESTIGATORS SEARCH TRASH CONTAINERS NEAR LAKEN RILEY MURDER SCENE

“Requiring the officers in this case to remain outside the defendant’s apartment while the unknown individuals inside continued to destroy evidence of the murder, despite the officers having obtained a search warrant, would be contrary to common sense and would be patently unreasonable,” prosecutors continued.

They also argue against Jose Ibarra’s request to exclude the testimony of a witness who conducted DNA testing during Riley’s autopsy, saying the results “did not exclude the defendant, but also did not exclude another known person associated with the case.”

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Prosecutors say the DNA evidence in Jose Ibarra’s case “comes from significant and relevant evidence including Laken Riley’s fingernails, discarded bloody gloves, a black adidas baseball cap, and a blue ‘hoodie’-style jacket, all of which present match statistics that will assist a jury in determining the defendant’s guilt or innocence of the crimes charged in the indictment.”

Additionally, detectives apparently identified “Jose Ibarra’s thumbprint on Laken Riley’s cell phone.”

LAKEN RILEY’S GEORGIA FUNERAL WILL MEMORIZE NURSING STUDENT ALLEGEDLY ABANDONED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

The 26-year-old suspect illegally crossed the border into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was paroled to the U.S., 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 after Riley’s death that the school had invested $16 million “over the past eight years to hire more police officers, install more security cameras, improve lighting, establish a nighttime rideshare program and create the UGASafe app.”

Since February, the university has allocated more than $7.3 million to enhance security measures, including a 20 percent increase in the UGA Police budget, emergency lights and a university-focused ride-sharing program.

The Ibarra Trial is to take place in November.