Jose Antonio Ibarra has been sentenced to existence in penitentiary after being realized responsible of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

Ibarra, who U.S. officers possess said is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the United States illegally in 2022, modified into once convicted Nov. 20 on 10 counts, in conjunction with three for prison execute, one for malice execute, plus kidnapping with bodily damage, aggravated assault with intent to rape and being a “peeping Tom,” NBC News reported.

Later within the day, the resolve sentenced Ibarra to existence in penitentiary without the chance of parole for the killing of Riley.

The 22-year-old, who studied at Augusta University, modified into once running at the intramural fields at the University of Georgia's campus in Athens, Ga. on the morning of Feb. 22 when she modified into once attacked. She modified into once realized unnecessary in a forested home after her roommates known as police when she did not return home.

Ibarra—whose DNA modified into once realized under Riley's fingernails and whose thumbprint modified into once realized on her iPhone, in step with proof offered by the prosecution—had within the initiating pleaded now not responsible to his execute and other charges.

Athens-Clarke County Superior Courtroom Deem H. Patrick Haggard handed down the responsible verdict on the fourth day of Ibarra's bench trial. The defendant had waived his right to a jury trial and did not testify in his possess protection.

Prosecutors argued for the length of the bench trial that Ibarra killed Riley after she fought off his strive to rape her. “It’s miles a correct away results of that fight,” prosecutor Sheila Ross had told the resolve, per NBC News, “that provides you your whole physical proof you will want to convict.”

Nonetheless, the protection argued that whereas the proof confirmed the sufferer modified into once murdered, it did not tie Ibarra to the killing without an inexpensive doubt, they usually suggested Ibarra's brother, Diego Ibarra, will possess killed Riley, NBC News said.

Riley is survived by her folks, two sisters and a brother. Her mother, Allyson Phillips, cried as she learn her sufferer influence assertion before the sentencing.

“This monster took away our potentialities to ogle Laken graduate from nursing college,” she said. “He took away our capacity to fulfill our future son-in-regulation. He destroyed our potentialities of assembly our grandchildren, and he took my finest pal.”

She added, “He took away every fair correct-attempting memory we acquired’t ever be in a space to create alongside with her yet again.”

(E! and NBC News are half of the NBCUniversal family.)