ATHENS, Ga. — One of the roommates of the man accused of killing a college nursing student took the stand and testified about how the 26-year-old moved to Georgia last year.
Laken Riley's death sparked a national debate on immigration when the Augusta University student was found dead on the University of Georgia's campus Feb 22, 2024.
It was later revealed that Jose Ibarra, her accused killer, entered the country illegally in Sept. 2022 near El Paso, Texas. Jose Ibarra is from Venezuela.
Rosbeli Flores Bello lived with Ibarra, two of his brothers, and another friend at an apartment complex in Athens. She testified — with the help of an interpreter — that she met him while she was living in New York and met him through his mother-in-law. She knew him for about a month before moving to Georgia. She said they moved to Georgia because he told her there would be a possibility of finding work in Athens.
"His brother (Diego) called him constantly telling him that there was work here," Flores Bello said. "That's why."
She told the prosecutor they requested for a "humanitarian flight" to come to Georgia. Already living in the Athens apartment at the time was Jose Ibarra's brother, Diego Ibarra, she testified.
Prosecutors also questioned Flores Bello about the time period when Riley was found dead. Specifically, the prosecutor asked if anyone reacted that night when her roommates learned that someone was found dead nearby.
"No," she answered.
The next morning, she said she was awakened by officers as they conducted the investigation.
Investigators built their case around video that they said showed Jose Ibarra discarding a jacket stained with Riley's blood and his DNA. When the video was shown in court, Flores Bello identified the person as her roommate, Jose Ibarra.
"Did it seem strange to you that Jose was throwing that jacket away?" the prosecutor asked Flores Bello, and she responded that it did.
The defense spent much of the day trying to create reasonable doubt about what belonged to Jose Ibarra and what he shared with his brother.
Jose Ibarra's attorney said much of the evidence they've seen could point to either Jose or Diego.
Flores Bello said Jose Ibarra and his brother Diego would wear each other's clothes and shared a bed in their small apartment.
"Besides Diego's Gmail account, there also was data on (phone 1b7) suggesting that (Diego's) Facebook account had been logged into?" the defense asked one witness in court.
"Yes," they replied. Ibarra's attorneys said the dating app Grindr was downloaded on the phone. When they tried to contact the people the account had messaged, some of them believed they were messaging someone other than Jose, the defense argued.