Laken Riley’s accused murderer seeks suppression of evidence

Jose Ibarra, the suspect charged in the murder of nursing student Laken Rilley on the University of Georgia campus earlier this year has asked for a hearing on a motion to suppress a list of evidentiary items, including cellphones, a buccal swab and social media accounts.

The 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, is accused of killing Riley the morning of Feb. 22 during a sexual assault on a wooded campus running trail.

Specifically, Ibarra seeks to suppress "(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," according to a motion filed Thursday in Clarke County Superior Court.

Ibarra's defense argues that the listed items were unlawfully collected by law enforcement and that detectives entered his residence without a search warrant.

The attorneys are asking for the evidence to be suppressed under the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, which makes certain evidence inadmissible if acquired through illegal measures.

Ibarra's defense further states in court documents that he had been "detained without reasonable suspicion that he had committed any offense on February 23, 2024."

Laken Riley

In addition to the motion to suppress evidence, defense attorneys seek to exclude testimony from a witness who performed DNA testing during Riley's autopsy, alleging that the results "did not exclude Defendant, but also did not exclude another known individual associated with the case."

An indictment alleges that during a sexual assault, Ibarra killed Riley by bludgeoning her head with a rock and strangling her.

The indictment charges him with malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault with intent to commit rape, aggravated battery, interference with a 911 emergency call, tampering with evidence, and peeping Tom.

Detectives obtained surveillance footage of Ibarra tossing bloody clothing into a dumpster after the murder.

The peeping charge stems from Ibarra allegedly peering through the window of an apartment at University Village, a student housing complex next door to where Ibarra lived at Argo Apartments on South Milledge Avenue. That incident happened earlier in the morning of Riley’s murder.