Defense Wants Evidence Disqualified in Laken Riley Murder Case

As most of you remember, Laken Riley was brutally murdered in February.

She was a promising young student at Augusta University who was found dead on dirt trails around the University of Georgia, where she used to run.

The suspect in the case, illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, is now asking that evidence in the case be tossed, claiming it was obtained illegally.

Toss It

The defense team submitted a list of evidence that it wanted to be suppressed, which included cell phones, DNA swabs, and social media accounts.

Specifically, the list of evidence they want suppressed is: "(a) two cellular devices believed by the State to belong to Defendant and the information contained within them; (b) genetic and physical information taken from the person of Defendant; (c) the contents of Defendant’s social media accounts, which include Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram; and (d) location data obtained from Google, Inc. In support of this motion.”

Ibarra's attorneys are arguing that police entered his residence illegally and did not have a search warrant when they secured the evidence.

His defense team is also arguing that Ibarra was "detained without reasonable suspicion that he had committed any offense on February 23, 2024."

The filing also stated, "Due to the complexity of the mixture used in testing, the testing was analyzed by using TrueAllele Casework Software. Results of this analysis were reported by [Ashley Hinkle, forensic biologist for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation] on April 3, 2024.

“Those results gave various probabilities of whether or not the sample in question was more or less likely to be a particular individual or a coincidental match.”

Ibarra is a 26-year-old illegal from Venezuela who allegedly brutally attacked Riley, who was only 22 years old at the time of her death.

Since Riley’s death, the University of Georgia has invested another $7.3 million in safety measures on top of the roughly $16 million it had already invested.

If the trial does move forward, it is scheduled to begin in November.

I just cannot even fathom the reaction in this country if this man gets off on a technicality because of sloppy police work.

I just hope and pray the complaint is wrong and the evidence is left to stand.