The man accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley has been indicted on 10 charges, including malice murder, felony murder and kidnapping, court documents show.
A Georgia grand jury on Tuesday additionally indicted Jose Antonio Ibarra on counts including aggravated battery, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence in connection with Riley’s slaying, ABC News reported.
The indictment comes more than two months after Riley was found beaten to death in a wooded area on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.
Riley, a student at the nearby Augusta University College of Nursing, disappeared shortly after she went out for a jog late the morning of Feb. 22. Her friend reported her missing later that day around noon when she did not return.
According to the indictment, 26-year-old Ibarra killed Riley by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her.” He also allegedly disfigured her head by striking her “multiple times” with a rock.
Before that, he attempted to rape the nursing student “by pulling up articles of her clothing, with the intent to have carnal knowledge of her forcibly and against her will,” the documents say.
Ibarra was arrested on Feb. 23.
He’s also been charged with a peeping tom offense, after being accused of peaking through the window of an on-campus apartment and spying on a person inside the same day he allegedly killed Riley.
Texas officials have said Ibarra is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 near El Paso. He was living in an apartment less than a mile from the University of Georgia, but authorities do not believe he knew Riley prior to her death.
He has not entered a plea to any of the charges against him and remains in custody in the Clarke County Jail. He was previously denied bail.
