ATLANTA — A 10-count indictment filed Tuesday lodges new accusations against a man suspected in the February killing of nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus.

Three of those counts accuse 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra of felony murder. The others include malice murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault with intent to rape, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and tampering with evidence. His previous charges did not reflect an alleged intent to rape.

The indictment also includes a new accusation that Ibarra spied on a UGA staff member, allegedly going to an apartment on campus and peeping through the woman’s window the same day Riley was killed.

The 22-year-old was found beaten to death around 1 p.m. Feb. 22 in a wooded area near the university’s intramural fields after going for a run that morning.

The stunning news rocked two communities: Athens, where she had lived for several years while attending UGA and Augusta University’s nursing school, and Woodstock, where she graduated from River Ridge High School.

It was the first suspected homicide on the grounds of Georgia’s flagship university in more than two decades.

Investigators have said they do not believe Ibarra knew Riley, with UGA police Chief Jeffrey Clark calling it a “crime of opportunity.”

According to the indictment, Ibarra attempted to rape Riley “by pulling up articles of her clothing, with the intent to have carnal knowledge of her forcibly and against her will.” He is then accused of asphyxiating her and causing blunt-force trauma to her head “by seriously disfiguring her head by striking her head multiple times with a rock.”

The tampering with evidence accusation stems from him allegedly hiding a jacket and gloves in an attempt to avoid apprehension.

The indictment does not state what time Ibarra is accused of peering in on the UGA staff member, so it’s not clear if it was before or after Riley was found. But the staff member’s apartment is just a mile-and-a-half from the intramural fields. Ibarra is accused of going to the property “for the purpose of becoming a peeping Tom in that he did peep through the window and spied upon and invaded the privacy of (the victim),” the indictment states.

...continued

©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.