A grand jury in Georgia has indicted a man on charges including malice murder and aggravated assault in connection with the killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student whose death in February became a flashpoint in the partisan fight over immigration and crime.
The killing on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens rattled the community there, but the case drew national interest after investigators zeroed in on the man, Jose Antonio Ibarra, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who entered the United States illegally and had previously been arrested on suspicion of minor, nonviolent offenses.
Mr. Ibarra, who has been in custody since the day after the Feb. 22 killing, had already been charged with murder. But the 10-count indictment, which was handed up on Tuesday and pushes the criminal case forward, revealed more about the circumstances surrounding the attack. It also leveled new allegations against Mr. Ibarra, including that he peeped into the windows of someone else’s campus apartment on the day Ms. Riley was killed.
He had apparently encountered Ms. Riley, a student at another college in the city, on a wooded trail about a mile from her apartment. He blocked her as she tried to call 911 for help, prosecutors said, and then pulled up her clothes with the intent to rape her. He strangled her and hit her over the head multiple times with a rock, “seriously disfiguring” her, according to the indictment.
The indictment included charges of malice and felony murder, aggravated assault and battery, kidnapping, interfering with a call for emergency help, and tampering with evidence, for trying to hide a jacket and gloves from the police. Mr. Ibarra was also charged with a single “peeping Tom” count.
Mr. Ibarra has yet to enter a plea in connection with the case, but in March his lawyers requested a jury trial. He has been held without bail. Mr. Ibarra’s lawyers did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Wednesday.
Mr. Ibarra has had multiple encounters with the authorities, starting with his arrival in the United States in 2022, when he was arrested by the Border Patrol for entering the country illegally. He was released with temporary permission to stay in the country through parole.
Mr. Ibarra was later arrested in New York for driving a scooter without a license, and with a child who was not wearing a helmet, officials said. He was arrested again, this time in Georgia in October, in connection with a shoplifting case and was released.
As soon as he was charged with Ms. Riley’s killing, Republicans trying to position immigration as a central issue during this year’s election shined a spotlight on the case, flagging it as an example of President Biden’s failure to adequately respond to an influx of migrants.
Former President Donald J. Trump called Mr. Ibarra a “monster.” He met with Ms. Riley’s family and some of her friends in March. “The brightest light in every room, they told me,” he said of Ms. Riley at a rally in Georgia.
Ms. Riley’s death was also invoked during the State of the Union, as Mr. Biden responded to heckling from the Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, while he spoke on immigration policy. “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” Mr. Biden said of Ms. Riley, diverting from his script.
Federal legislation named for Ms. Riley passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, with 37 Democrats joining Republicans. It would require that migrants who enter the country without authorization and are then accused of theft be taken into federal custody. The legislation, which stalled in the Senate, was attacked by critics as a crass exploitation of tragedy.
Last week, Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed state legislation motivated by Ms. Riley’s killing that tightened the state’s already strict immigration laws. The measure requires local law enforcement agencies to scrutinize the immigration status of people in their custody, and to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
“Georgians have witnessed the disastrous impact lawlessness is having on communities across the country,” Mr. Kemp, a Republican, said as he signed a package of bills related to public safety, adding, “We are able to once again send the message that such lawlessness will find no safe haven in Georgia.”
