Georgia college student murder: Illegal immigrant suspect requests to conceal certain proof.

Jose Ibarra, the suspect accused of murdering Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley in February, is requesting a hearing to suppress a range of evidentiary items, including cellphones, a buccal swab, and social media accounts.

On the morning of Feb. 22, Riley, a 22-year-old student at the University of Georgia in Athens, was attacked and killed by Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela while she was out for a run along dirt trails.

The court document filed on Thursday reveals that Ibarra is seeking to suppress four pieces of evidence: (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.

Ibarra's defense claims that the evidence was illegally obtained by law enforcement and that detectives entered his home without a search warrant. He is requesting that the evidence be suppressed under the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, which prohibits the use of evidence obtained through illegal means in court.

In court documents filed Thursday, Ibarra's defense claims that the suspect was "unlawfully detained on February 23, 2024, without any evidence of wrongdoing."

Ibarra is requesting to exclude testimony from a witness who conducted DNA testing during Riley's autopsy, claiming that the results "did not exclude the defendant, but also did not exclude another known individual associated with the case."

The testing was analyzed using TrueAllele Casework Software due to the complexity of the mixture used. The results were reported by Ashley Hinkle, a forensic biologist for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, on April 3, 2024. The results provided probabilities of whether or not the sample was more or less likely to be a particular individual or a coincidental match, according to court documents.

In May, a Georgia grand jury charged Ibarra with malice murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, two counts of aggravated assault with intent to rape, two counts of aggravated battery, obstructing or hindering a person from making a 911 call, tampering with evidence, and being a "peeping Tom."

The suspect is accused of causing Riley's death by inflicting blunt-force trauma to her head and "asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to jurors," the indictment alleges.

The suspect is accused of peeping through a window and spying on a university staff member on UGA's campus on the same day he allegedly killed Riley, according to the indictment.

Ibarra and his siblings, who are undocumented immigrants from Venezuela, resided in an apartment complex near the UGA campus where Riley was killed. According to UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark, the murder was committed as a "crime of opportunity."

The loop where Riley ran that morning is a five-minute walk from Ibarra's apartment complex.

In September 2022, a 26-year-old suspect entered the United States illegally through El Paso, Texas, and was released via parole. His older brother, Diego Ibarra, is accused of green card fraud and has ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S., according to court documents.

Over the past eight years, UGA has invested $16 million to improve safety on campus, including hiring more police officers, installing more security cameras, enhancing lighting, establishing a nightly rideshare program, and creating the UGASafe app.

Since February, the school has allocated more than $7.3 million to enhance safety measures, including a 20% increase to UGA's police budget, emergency blue lights, and a university-focused rideshare program.

Ibarra's trial is scheduled to take place in November.