Laken Riley murder trial updates: Suspect Jose Ibarra back in court for day 3

On the morning of Laken Riley’s murder, security video footage from the University of Georgia campus safety camera system shows a man wearing dark clothing and a hood lurking around a building where a doctoral student claimed someone was peeking into her apartment.

Tejaswi Stamilmnai Saraswathi, 24, testified Monday about someone trying to get into her apartment while she was in the shower. An hour later, Laken Riley was killed nearby.

The video was shown to the court on Tuesday during testimony by Sgt. Sophie Raboud with the University of Georgia police department.

She noted that there was also a street camera video showing Laken Riley, and later her friends, looking for her.

As court began on Tuesday Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard ruled that the translations of a jail phone call between Jose Ibarra and his wife Layling Franco would not be admitted into evidence.

The call was played on Monday and translated from Spanish to English by FBI specialist Abeisis Ramirez.

The judge also ruled that several short videos Ibarra had posted of selfies along with Spanish song lyrics will not be admitted.

“After hearing the translations, I do find that it was more than contextual and therefore violates the confrontation clause in the 6th Amendment,” Judge Haggard said.

On the morning of her murder, Laken Riley texted her mother hoping to talk to her while out for a run, the court heard on Tuesday.

“Good morning, about to go for a run if you’re free to talk,” Riley wrote.

Sophie Raboud of the UGA Police Department testified that Riley sent the message at 8:55 a.m. She then called her mother at 9:03 a.m. but there was no answer.

As the officer testified, Riley’s mother could be heard crying in court.

The next time Riley used her phone that morning, it was at 9:11 a.m. to call for help.

When Riley’s mother Allyson Phillips called her back at 9:24 a.m., there was no answer.

Phillips then texted at 9:37 a.m., “Call me when you can.”

After calling several times, her mother texted, “You’re making me nervous not answering while you’re out running. Are you OK?”

Again at 11:47 a.m., Riley’s mother texted, “Please call me, I’m worried sick about you.”

Court resumed this morning at 8:30 a.m.

The court is expected to hear from the state’s last  few witnesses, including a medical examiner.

Ibarra’s brothers could also be called to the stand.

Prosecutors say they expect to rest their case today.

The defense will then begin to present their case and said they will need less than half a day for witness testimony.

Day two of Jose Ibarra’s murder trial wrapped up on Monday and will resume on Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Prosecutors told the court they will rest their case against Ibarra on Tuesday. The defense team was told to have their witnesses ready for the afternoon.

One of the defense attorneys told the judge they have less than half a day of testimony planned.

FBI Special Agent James “Jay” Berni, who analyzed the suspect’s phone data, told the court that between 9:09 a.m. and 9:12 a.m., Jose Ibarra’s phone and Laken Riley’s digital profile were “very close” until “approximately, I would say, probably 9:32,” he said.

Riley’s smartwatch data showed her heart stopped at 9:28 a.m., according to earlier testimony.

The agent went on to say that Ibarra’s cell phone location then moved away from the crime scene, back to his apartment, to the dumpster where it’s alleged he dumped his jacket and back home around 9:44 a.m.

He also pointed out that the data showed movement from Ibarra’s apartment, then near the apartment of a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, who testified earlier that an unknown person was peeping into her home while she was in the shower, jsuyt an hour before Riley was killed.

Then, Ibarra’s “device was most likely in the forested area somewhere along this park (Oconee Forest Park),” at 9:09 a.m., Berni testified.

Sally Kirklewski, who was an avid runner on the trails, testified that she saw a person on the trails the morning of Laken Riley’s murder who was standing “really, really still.”

The person appeared to be a man, she said, and was wearing a navy blue jacket with the hood up. He was wearing gloves and dark pants and dark shoes, she added.

When she spotted him, he was standing near a retention pond facing away from the trail, she said.

“I continued running past this person a little bit faster,” she said.

Laken Riley’s mother broke down in tears again in court on Monday – this time during testimony that revealed the exact moment her heart stopped.

University of Georgia police officer Wesley Durkit said that data from Laken Riley’s smartwatch show her heart rate and moving speed slowing down and then coming to a sudden stop at 9:10 a.m. Her heart stopped beating at 9:28 a.m., he said.

She activated the SOS feature on her phone at 9:10:39 a.m. and a 911 call went out at 9:11:06 a.m., Durkit testified.

Riley’s heart rate dropped to zero beats per minute and remained there until a few short spikes at 12:38 p.m., when a police officer performed CPR on her, he testified.

Tejaswi Stamilmnai Saraswathi, 24, testified about someone trying to get into her apartment while she was in the shower.

It happened on the morning of February 22 about an hour before Laken Riley’s murder.

Jose Ibarra faces the peeping tom charge related to the incident.

Saraswathi, who was a student at the University of Georgia, told the court she heard someone “fidgeting” with the door of her Athens apartment.

“When I went to see who it was, I saw through a peephole someone was trying to open the door,” she said. The person fled, but she saw that he was wearing a black hood, black jacket, a hat and black gloves. But she couldn’t see his face, she said.

Jose Ibarra’s roommate Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello testified through an interpreter that she moved with him from New York City to Athens, Georgia, in September of 2023.

Flores-Bello was living in Queens when they met through his mother-in-law.

She said they moved to Georgia because Ibarra’s brother talked about the many work opportunities in Athens.

When asked by the state how they got to Athens, Flores-Bello said they requested a “humanitarian flight” in September.

“In Manhattan, at The Roosevelt Hotel, we asked for a humanitarian flight to come here to Atlanta, to come here to Manhattan,” she said.

The hotel was used as a temporary in-take center for migrants.