Laken Riley murder suspect pleads not guilty to murder on University of Georgia campus

The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was charged Friday with murder in connection with the killing on the University of Georgia campus.

An Athens-Clarke County judge entered a not guilty plea for Jose Ibarra, 26, following his indictment earlier this month on charges of intentional murder, felony murder and other offenses. The judge said the trial in that case would likely be scheduled for the fall.

Ibarra did not speak and wore headphones during the arraignment. His attorney requested 90 days to review the preliminary discovery. The state said it was waiting for cellphone and other scientific reports, but would be ready for trial in the fall.

Riley’s family was also in the courtroom for the arraignment.

Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area of ​​the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she failed to return from an errand. The indictment alleges that Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and asphyxiating her” and that he severely disfigured her head by striking her “repeatedly” with a rock.

The additional 10 counts include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence – a jacket and gloves – implicating the crime of intentional murder.

He was also charged with voyeurism. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of another person who lived in an apartment on campus.

Ibarra was denied bond following his Feb. 23 arrest and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.

Police said they did not believe Ibarra – a migrant from Venezuela – knew Riley and that it was a “crime of opportunity”. His death became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives.