Murder trial for suspect accused of killing Laken Riley expected to begin Nov. 18
Courtesy of Augusta University
(ATHENS, Ga.) — The murder trial for the suspect accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus is expected to start in mid-November, a judge said Friday, as the defense is seeking to move the high-profile case to another county.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard said jury selection would likely begin on Nov. 13, with the trial starting on Nov. 18.
The suspect, Jose Ibarra, appeared in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom for the hearing Friday morning.
His defense is seeking to move the trial out of Athens-Clarke County, arguing in a motion filed on Thursday that it “will not be possible to find an impartial jury to hear the matter.” They also cited the “extensive media coverage” of the case in the county.
Haggard preliminarily gave prosecutors within 10 days of the motion’s filing to respond to the request and said he would like to have a motions hearing sometime in late September or early October.
The defense said the schedule sounded reasonable. Prosecutors said they would like to wrap up the trial proceedings before Thanksgiving for the jurors, which Haggard said was “not lost on me.”
Ibarra, 26, was indicted by an Athens Clarke County grand jury on malice murder and felony murder and other offenses in May. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run. The indictment alleges Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her” and seriously disfigured her head by striking her “multiple times” with a rock.
Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — a jacket and gloves — involving the offense of malice murder.
He was also charged with a peeping tom offense. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a different person who lived in an apartment on campus.
In a separate motion filed on Thursday, the defense sought to sever that charge from the indictment, arguing that the offense is against a different alleged victim and would “create significant prejudice.”
Ibarra was denied bond following his arrest on Feb. 23 and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.
Police have said they do not believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — knew Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.” Her death has become a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives.
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — Prosecutors argued Alec Baldwin behaved recklessly and “violated the cardinal rules of firearm safety” during the filming of “Rust,” while the defense said the actor “committed no crime” in the “unspeakable tragedy,” during opening statements Wednesday in the manslaughter trial over the 2021 fatal on-set shooting.
Baldwin was practicing a cross-draw in a church on the Santa Fe set of the Western when the Colt .45 revolver fired a live round, fatally striking 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury on involuntary manslaughter in connection with Hutchins’ death earlier this year after prosecutors previously dropped the charge. He pleaded not guilty.
Baldwin committed ‘numerous breaches’ of firearm safety, state says
“The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that like in many workplaces, there are people who act in a reckless manner and place other individuals in danger, and act without due regard for the safety of others,” prosecutor Erlinda Ocampo Johnson told jurors during her opening statement. “That, you will hear, was the defendant — Alexander Baldwin, the lead actor on this film.”
Johnson told jurors that while they will hear the revolver referred to as a “prop gun,” it is a real gun that experts will testify was in proper working order.
She told jurors they will hear about “numerous breaches” of firearm safety regarding Baldwin, from him using it as a pointer to cocking the hammer and putting his finger on the trigger when he was not supposed to do either.
While handling the firearm prior to the shooting, Baldwin “would do his own thing,” including having his finger on or around the trigger during two draws, Johnson said.
“The evidence will show that that third and fatal time, he takes it out once again, fast,” Johnson said. “He cocks the hammer, points it straight at Miss Hutchins and fires that gun, sending that live bullet right into Miss Hutchins’ body.”
Baldwin has maintained that he did not pull the trigger of the firearm, though the FBI’s forensic report determined the gun could not have been fired without pulling the trigger.
“After the shooting, the defendant began to claim he didn’t pull the trigger. The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that’s not possible,” Johnson told jurors.
Live bullet on set ‘most critical issue,’ defense says
Defense attorney Alex Spiro told jurors the state will attempt to “tarnish” Baldwin but that the “most critical issue” in the case is how the live bullet got on set.
“On this set, there was a real bullet, something that should never be on a movie set, something which has nothing to do with making a movie,” Spiro told the jurors during his opening statement. “You will hear no evidence, not one word that Alec Baldwin had anything to do with that real bullet being brought onto that set.”
He said it was the armorer’s responsibility to ensure the firearm was safe, and that the loading of the live bullet had nothing to do with Baldwin.
“No one had any idea that this venomous, toxic element had been inserted into this magic they were creating,” Spiro said. “But it did. It entered that place. It killed an amazing person, it wounded another, and it changed lives forever.”
Spiro said when the gun was handed to Baldwin, “cold gun” was announced, indicating it was safe. When it fired, everyone on set was “shocked,” he said.
“Alec is startled. He immediately says, ‘I didn’t mean to shoot. I didn’t pull the trigger,'” Spiro said.
Spiro said that Baldwin didn’t pull the trigger but that on a movie set “you’re allowed to pull the trigger.” Even if the state could prove that Baldwin did intentionally pull the trigger, “that doesn’t make him guilty of homicide,” Spiro said.
“He did not know, or have any reason to know, that gun was loaded with a live bullet,” Spiro said. “That’s the key. That live bullet is the key. That is the lethal element.”
1st witness recounts response to shooting
Following opening arguments, the state called its first witness, officer Nicholas Lefleur, who was the first law enforcement officer to arrive in response to a 911 call reporting the on-set shooting.
Lefleur discussed his efforts to secure the scene at the Bonanza Creek Ranch and separate witnesses.
During footage from his lapel camera shown to the jury, Lefleur seeks out Baldwin — who is seen talking on his cellphone while still in costume — and says he understands the actor was in the room during the shooting.
“I was the one holding the gun, yeah,” Baldwin responds.
Prosecutor Kari Morrissey questioned Lefleur about several instances in which Baldwin was seen talking to other witnesses even though the officer asked him not to.
In his cross-examination, Spiro addressed that at no point during those instances did Lefleur tell the witnesses to separate.
Baldwin 2nd person to go on trial in shooting
The jury was selected on Tuesday. The trial is currently scheduled to go through July 19. That does not include deliberations.
Prosecutors were seeking to argue during the trial that, as a producer of the film, Baldwin bore responsibility for unsafe conditions on the set. However, during a pretrial hearing on Monday, Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer denied using evidence of his role as a producer during the trial.
The judge also ruled that footage from the “Rust” set showing Baldwin’s handling of the firearm can be admitted into evidence in the trial, but that videos of him yelling or cussing at the crew to hurry up were not relevant in the case.
Baldwin, 66, is the second person to go on trial in connection with the fatal shooting.
The film’s armorer — 27-year-old Hannah Gutierrez — was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March. Prosecutors argued that she repeatedly failed to maintain proper firearm safety and brought several live rounds onto the set — including the one that killed Hutchins.
Her attorney told ABC News on Tuesday that they have been informed that she will be called to testify on Friday and plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
Marlowe Sommer denied last month the state’s request to use immunity to compel Gutierrez’s testimony during Baldwin’s trial. Prosecutors sought immunity so that Gutierrez’s testimony could not be used against her in her appeal. At a pretrial interview in May, Gutierrez asserted her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, prosecutors said.
Last year, David Halls, the film’s first assistant director who had conducted the safety check on the Colt .45 revolver prior to the shooting, accepted a plea deal in the case after being charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to six months unsupervised probation.
He could also be called to testify during the trial, court records show.
(TAVARES, Fla.) — Three Lake County Sheriff’s deputies were shot, one fatally, while they were responding to a report of disturbance in a Florida home.
One deputy is dead. Another deputy was struck in the shoulder and is now in stable condition. The third deputy was struck in the armpit, the groin and the stomach area multiple times, has undergone surgery and is in serious critical condition, Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell said during a press conference.
Deputies responded to a call about a disturbance that was in progress and while they were conducting their investigation, they learned there was an issue at a home a few houses down from where they were, Grinnell said.
The deputies then responded there and saw what appeared to be the back door kicked in and they heard a disturbance inside the house. When the deputies entered the home, there was “a lot of gunfire” and one of the deputies was struck, Grinnell said.
The backup deputy with him was able to retreat out of the home but the first deputy was trapped inside the home.
Multiple deputies responded to the scene and formed a “rescue team” to go back into the house and attempt to get the deputy inside the home and they were met with a “hail of gunfire” and another deputy sheriff was struck, but they were able to retreat from the house, Grinnell said.
“It was a very violent scene,” Grinnell said.
“They were ambushed,” he said.
Law enforcement then mobilized the SWAT team as they were dealing with “a lot of firepower,” Grinnell said.
Of the people inside the home, two are dead and one was transported and their condition is unknown, according to Grinnell. They found multiple firearms in the home.
There is no longer a threat to the public, according to Grinnell.
This handout image taken and released by the Mount Vernon Fire Department shows rescue vehicles on Interstate 75 during an active shooter incident near London, Ky., Sept. 7, 2024. — Mount Vernon Fire Department
(LONDON, Ky.) — Joseph A. Couch, the man authorities have named as a suspect in a Kentucky freeway shooting that left seven people injured, bought the weapon used in the incident legally on the morning of the shooting, authorities said Sunday night.
Laurel County Sheriff’s Commander Richard Dalrymple said at Sunday night’s news briefing that Couch purchased about a thousand rounds of ammunition, most of which has been recovered.
The suspect remains at large despite a massive search in the area of Saturday’s shooting north of London, Kentucky.
The shooting unfolded around 5:30 p.m. local time on Saturday evening, officials said. Arriving deputies initially found nine vehicles had been shot in both the north and southbound lanes of I-75, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at a news conference late Saturday night. By Sunday night, that number had jumped to 12 vehicles, according to officials.
Root said deputies found five people with serious gunshot wounds, including one who was shot in the face. He said one vehicle contained two people who were shot.
Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said Sunday that none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries and were all in stable condition.
“A couple of our deputies, because of the severity of the injuries, loaded the people up, the injured persons, and transported them to London Hospital,” Root said.
Two additional people were injured in a car crash that occurred during the shooting, authorities said.
Root said I-75 was immediately shut down in both directions, saying that at the time, deputies didn’t know where the bullets came from.
“We couldn’t risk somebody else being shot,” Root said.
Authorities previously said they found an AR-15 rifle in the woods near the crime scene on Interstate 75, about eight miles north of London, Kentucky. Couch’s vehicle was also found abandoned in the same area Saturday night, officials said Sunday afternoon.
Couch was first named as a person of interest in the incident but upgraded to a suspect on Sunday. Root said the decision to name Couch a suspect was based on evidence collected in the investigation. Asked to elaborate, Root said that the recovery of the weapon and Couch’s vehicle, as well as “some information” he could not share, prompted investigators to elevate Couch to a suspect in the shooting.
The sheriff’s office earlier released a photo of Couch, who allegedly fled the freeway shooting and was believed to still be in the area, Root said.
Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff’s office described him as about 5-foot-10-inches tall and 154 pounds.
Dalrymple said Sunday night that the suspect allegedly fired from a ledge about 30 feet down from a cliff by Exit 49. To find the location, Dalrymple said he had to hold onto a tree and look down to see the site to find the location.
Earlier, Acciardo described the shooting as “sniper-like” and said it was not the result of road rage. He said investigators do not believe the shooter knew any of the victims or had contact with them before the shooting.
Up to 60 members of law enforcement searched the area of the shooting until 3 a.m. Sunday before halting the search due to safety concerns, saying it was pitch black on the highway and describing the terrain where the search was being conducted as very rugged.
More than 150 individuals were involved in the search for Couch on Sunday, with efforts set to resume on Monday morning, according to Root.
The FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting local authorities in the investigation, officials said.
A motive for the shooting remained under investigation.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement on X on Saturday that he was monitoring the situation.
In an interview Sunday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Christina Dinoto said she was driving with a friend southbound on I-75, heading to Tennessee, when the shooting erupted.
“All of a sudden, we just heard this loud, deafening sound,” Dinoto said. “And my ear, my right ear, started ringing, and we didn’t know what the sound was, but we both looked at each other and said, was that a gunshot?”
Dinoto said that when she pulled off the interstate in Knoxville, she discovered damage to her vehicle that she suspects was caused by a bullet that may have ricocheted off another car.
The Kentucky shooting came less than a week after six people were injured in six shootings that occurred on Sept. 2 on Interstate 5 in Washington state between 8:26 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, officials previously said. A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area on Sept. 3, police said.
