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Thread: Cristhian Bahena Rivera Sentenced to LWOP in 2018 IA Murder of Mollie Tibbetts

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Cristhian Bahena Rivera Sentenced to LWOP in 2018 IA Murder of Mollie Tibbetts

    Man charged with murder in death of missing Iowa woman

    The Associated Press
    Minnesota Public Radio News

    A man from Mexico living in the U.S. illegally has confessed to kidnapping college student Mollie Tibbetts while she was running in her small Iowa hometown, killing her and dumping her body in a cornfield, authorities said Tuesday.

    Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of the 20-year-old Tibbetts, whose July 18 disappearance set off a massive search involving state and federal authorities.

    Rivera led investigators early Tuesday to a body believed to be Tibbetts in a cornfield about 12 miles southeast of Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts was last seen running, Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Rick Rahn said.

    "I can't speak about the motive. I can just tell you that it seemed that he followed her, seemed to be drawn to her on that particular day, for whatever reason he chose to abduct her," Rahn told reporters at a news conference outside the sheriff's office in Montezuma, where Rivera was being held on $1 million cash-only bond.

    The news that the highly publicized and gruesome crime was allegedly committed by a person in the country illegally drew immediate outrage. President Donald Trump noted the arrest and called for immigration law changes at a rally in West Virginia, Iowa's two Republican U.S. senators described Tibbetts' death as a tragedy "that could have been prevented," and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said residents were heartbroken and angry.

    "We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community, and we will do all we can to bring justice to Mollie's killer," Reynolds, a Republican, said in a statement.

    The arrest is likely to spark calls for a further crackdown on illegal immigration, which Trump has made a core policy of his administration.

    He often has claimed widespread crime by people living in the country illegally, citing among other things the indictments of 11 suspected MS-13 gang members from El Salvador charged in connection with the slayings of two Virginia teens. Trump also has held events at the White House with members of "angel families," whose relatives were killed by immigrants.

    Although Trump claims legal U.S. residents are less likely to commit crime, several studies from social scientists and the libertarian think tank Cato Institute find that isn't accurate and states with a higher share of people living in the country illegally have lower violent crime rates.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that it lodged a federal immigration detainer for Rivera after he was arrested on the murder charge. That move means the agency has probable cause to believe he is subject to deportation.

    Investigators said they believed Rivera had lived in the area from four to seven years. Rahn declined comment on his employment history, but described Rivera as someone who lived in a rural area and kept to himself. A search of Iowa court records revealed no prior criminal history, and it's unclear whether he had ever been subject to prior deportation proceedings.

    Rivera's Facebook page described him as being from Guayabillo, a community of less than 500 people in the state of Guerrero. It's about a three-hour drive from the resort city of Acapulco.

    Investigators said they zeroed in on Rivera after obtaining footage from surveillance cameras in Brooklyn. The footage showed a Chevy Malibu connected to Rivera that was driving back and forth as Tibbetts was running in the area, Rahn said.

    An affidavit attached to the criminal complaint against Rivera alleged that he admitted to investigators he got out of his car and started running alongside Tibbetts.

    Tibbetts grabbed her phone and said she was going to call the police. The affidavit says Rivera panicked and then said he blacked out. Rivera next remembers seeing her earphones on his lap, and taking her bloody body out of the trunk of his car, it said.

    "The defendant further described during the interview that he dragged Tibbetts on foot from his vehicle to a secluded location in a cornfield," the affidavit said.

    Investigators said they had earlier searched the area for Tibbetts but didn't find her, noting the body was covered by corn stalks when recovered early Tuesday.

    Rahn said that Rivera was cooperating with investigators and speaking with the help of a translator. He said an autopsy would be performed on the body Wednesday by the state medical examiner's office, which would assist investigators in understanding whether Tibbetts had been assaulted or tried to fight him off.

    Rivera's initial court appearance is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday in Montezuma.

    A conviction on first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole in Iowa, which doesn't have the death penalty.

    On Tuesday night, deputies were guarding a trailer where the suspect had lived on a gravel road outside Brooklyn near a dairy farm.

    Tibbetts' disappearance set off a massive search involving dozens of officers from the FBI, as well as state and local agencies. They focused much of their efforts in and around Brooklyn, searching farm fields, ponds and homes. Investigators asked anyone who was around five locations, including a car wash, a truck stop and a farm south of town, to report if they saw anything suspicious on July 18.

    Last week, Vice President Mike Pence met privately with the Tibbetts family during a visit to Iowa and told them that "you're on the hearts of every American."

    At Brooklyn City Hall, city clerk Sheri Sharer said Tuesday was a sad day for the town.

    "It never crossed our mind that she wouldn't come home safe," she said.

    The University of Iowa mourned the loss of Tibbetts, a psychology major who would have started her junior year this week.

    "We are deeply saddened that we've lost a member of the University of Iowa community," said university official Melissa Shivers, who urged students to seek counseling and other support services as needed.

    https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/0...ollie-tibbetts
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Iowa farmer 'shocked' that worker is suspect in Tibbetts' death

    BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — For years, the young man from Mexico presented himself as a legal U.S. resident and reliable worker at a family dairy farm in small town Iowa, his employer said.

    But this week, the image of Cristhian Bahena Rivera transformed in a matter of hours. Now he's a man accused of illegally living and working in the U.S. on fraudulent documents, of being a predator who kidnapped and killed a beloved young woman, and to some, the monstrous face of a lax immigration system.

    Rivera made his initial court appearance Wednesday in a rural Iowa courthouse on a first-degree murder charge in the death of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts. He sat stone-faced and handcuffed in a striped jail jumpsuit as he said through an interpreter that he understood he faced life in prison if convicted. He was ordered jailed on a $5 million cash-only bond after a prosecutor said he was a danger to the community who was accused of a "heinous crime."

    The turn of events stunned the prominent farm family that employed him for the last four years. They said the 24-year-old worked under a different name and was a good employee who helped take care of their cows and got along with co-workers.

    Even after Tibbetts disappeared on July 18 while out for an evening run in the small central Iowa town of Brooklyn, Rivera kept coming to work and "nobody saw a difference" in his demeanor, said Dane Lang, the manager of Yarrabee Farms. His colleagues were stunned Tuesday to learn that he was not only the suspect in Tibbetts' death, but that he had a different real name than what he went by on the farm, Lang said.

    "Our employee is not who he said he was," Lang said at a news conference at the farm. "This was shocking to us."

    When Rivera was hired in 2014, he presented an out-of-state government-issued photo identification and a matching Social Security card, Lang said. That information was run through the Social Security Administration's employment-verification system and checked out, he said.

    Rivera's defense attorney, Allan Richards, acknowledged Wednesday that his client received his paycheck under a different name and that he was uncertain of his immigration status. He said he was prepared to argue that his client was in the country legally, noting that he came to the U.S. as a minor and had worked and paid taxes for years.

    "He showed up every day and he did his job. He was patted on his back. They turned a blind eye to the reality of documentation," Richards said.

    Rivera lived in a trailer owned by his employer, and is the father of a young girl. But little else is so far known about Rivera, who only came on to investigators' radar this week.

    "A major part of the investigation now is: Who is he? Where did he come from, and what has he been doing?" Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation assistant director Mitch Mortvedt said Thursday.

    Investigators say they believe Rivera abducted Tibbetts as she went on an evening jog, killed her and dumped her body in a cornfield. A judge on Wednesday agreed to increase Rivera's bond to $5 million from $1 million after prosecutor Scott Brown noted he was a potential flight risk who was charged with a "heinous crime."

    His attorney, Richards, lashed out at President Donald Trump for publicly declaring his client guilty within hours of his arrest Tuesday. He said his client was a hard worker with the equivalent of an eighth-grade education, had no prior criminal record and deserved the presumption of innocence and a fair trial.

    "Sad and Sorry Trump has weighed in on this matter in national media which will poison the entire possible pool of jury members," Richards wrote in a court filing.

    Trump has claimed that people living in the U.S. illegally often commit crimes, and has prioritized cracking down on illegal immigration. But studies by social scientists and the libertarian Cato Institute reject that assertion, saying states with higher shares of people living in the country illegally have lower violent crime rates.

    In an interview that aired Thursday on "Fox & Friends," Trump called Tibbetts a "beautiful young girl."

    "She was killed by a horrible person that came in from Mexico, illegally here," Trump said.

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged an immigration detainer for Rivera, which means the agency has probable cause to believe he is subject to deportation.

    Yarrabee Farms is a small family farming operation that dates back to 1860 and has been owned for six generations by the Lang family, which is prominent in the community, farming circles and Republican politics. Dane Lang said the farm had received dozens of disturbing phone calls and messages since the employee's arrest, including threats to kill his dog and burn down his buildings.

    "This is a scary situation," he said.

    His father and farm co-owner Craig Lang, a former president of the Iowa Farm Bureau who ran earlier this year for state agriculture secretary, said the farm was cooperating with investigators and had already turned over Rivera's hiring records. He said now was not the time to debate immigration but to grieve the loss of Tibbetts, who was studying psychology at the University of Iowa.

    Rivera led investigators Tuesday to a body believed to be Tibbetts in a cornfield about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southeast of Brooklyn, where she was last seen, police said.

    Rivera allegedly confessed to following her and then panicking when she threatened to call police. He told authorities that he blacked out and then dumped her bloody body in the secluded location.

    An autopsy began Wednesday seeking to confirm that the body found was that of Tibbetts and to determine the cause and manner of death.

    Rivera's Facebook page described him as being from Guayabillo, a community of less than 500 people in the Mexican state of Guerrero. It's about a three-hour drive from the resort city of Acapulco.

    Investigators said they zeroed in on Rivera after obtaining footage from surveillance cameras in Brooklyn. The footage showed a Chevy Malibu connected to Rivera that was driving back and forth as Tibbetts was running in the area. The farm where he worked was just a couple miles away from that location.

    A conviction on first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole in Iowa, which does not have the death penalty.

    http://www.kimt.com/content/news/Iow...491562781.html
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    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Below is a timeline of events regarding her disappearance and discovery:

    TIMELINE: Disappearance of Mollie Tibbetts

    July 18

    Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, is last seen jogging in Brooklyn, Iowa.

    July 19

    Tibbetts was staying at her boyfriend's home at the time of her disappearance. She was there to watch his dogs because he had a construction job about 100 miles northeast in Dubuque.

    A neighbor reports seeing Tibbetts going for a jog at about 7:30 p.m. on July 18.

    Her boyfriend says he received a Snapchat message from her after she would have returned from her run.

    When she fails to respond to text messages, and doesn't show up for work, Tibbetts' family members call police to report her missing.

    July 24

    Volunteer searches for Tibbetts are called off as the FBI and state investigators take over.

    July 25

    Investigators are turning to Tibbetts' personal devices, including her Fitbit, to find her.

    July 26

    Investigators say they have searched a pig farm and other places in east-central Iowa near where Tibbetts went missing, but have turned up no sign of her.

    July 31

    Tibbetts' older brother says investigators told him evidence shows she was doing homework on her computer the night she disappeared.

    August 1

    More than 200 interviews have been conducted in the investigation into Tibbetts' disappearance.

    August 5

    The body of a white female in her early to mid-20s is found in rural Lee County.

    August 6

    Authorities say the body of a young woman found in southeast Iowa is not that of Tibbetts.

    August 9

    The brother of Tibbetts' boyfriend says there were no signs of a struggle at the home where she was staying.

    August 13

    Investigators launch an interactive website to help with the search for Tibbetts.

    The website, findingmollie.iowa.gov, has an interactive map to help the public with the details, and a link to provide anonymous tips.

    August 15

    Authorities announce they are focusing on five areas in and around Tibbetts' hometown.

    The areas of interest are: her boyfriend's home in Brooklyn; a carwash; a truck stop; a farm more than 3 miles from downtown Brooklyn; and another farm more than 6 miles away.

    August 21

    Authorities say they believe they recovered Tibbetts' body in rural Poweshiek County.
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    Mollie Tibbetts’ Autopsy Reveals Cause of Death

    BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa college student who was allegedly abducted by a stranger while running last month was killed by “multiple sharp force injuries,” investigators announced Thursday. Preliminary autopsy results from the state medical examiner’s office also determined that 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts was the victim of a homicide, the Division of Criminal Investigation announced in a press release.

    The agency did not release additional details about the injuries she suffered or what caused them, but said further examination of the body may result in additional findings. Autopsy reports are confidential under Iowa law, except for the cause and manner of death.

    The man charged with first-degree murder in Tibbetts’ death, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, allegedly led investigators to her body early Tuesday in a cornfield outside of Brooklyn, Iowa, the town where she was last seen in July. While investigators were confident then that the body was that of Tibbetts, the autopsy definitively confirmed her identity.

    Investigators allege that Rivera abducted Tibbetts while she was out for an evening run in Brooklyn on July 18. Investigators allege he killed her and then disposed of her body in the secluded location. Earlier this week, investigators said they were uncertain how she died pending the autopsy, and they’ve made no mention of recovering a murder weapon.

    Rivera, a native of Mexico who is suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, made his initial court appearance Wednesday and is being jailed on a $5 million cash-only bond. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. A preliminary hearing in his case is scheduled for next week.

    His attorney, Allan Richards, said Thursday that the public should give his client his day in court and not prejudge the case.

    “Let’s let the process go,” he said. “The process is about truth-finding in a rational, peaceful and efficient manner. We’re only at the very preliminary stages of this matter.”

    https://rare.us/rare-news/across-the...uspect-farmer/
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    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Would Jeff Sessions seek the death penalty in this case in Federal Government as Iowa does not retain capital punishment?

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Feds don't have jurisdiction in this case so he won't get the DP. Sessions has to authorize federal death penalty cases.

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    Mollie Tibbetts Murder: Accused Killer Cristhian Bahena Rivera Pleads Not Guilty

    insideedition.com

    The man accused of killing Mollie Tibbetts has pleaded not guilty.

    Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, appeared in court Wednesday to enter the plea to the charge of first-degree murder.

    Tibbetts vanished on July 18 after going for an evening run in Brooklyn, Iowa. For weeks, the search for the missing Iowa college student captivated the nation before she was found dead in a cornfield, covered in husks.

    Surveillance video given to investigators showed Tibbetts, 20, out jogging and a car following her, authorities said last month at a press conference.

    Police say Rivera, who was identified as the driver of the car, told law enforcement officers during an interrogation that he spoke to Tibbetts on July 18 and stopped his car to run along with her.

    Rivera "admitted to making contact with a female running in Brooklyn and that he pursued her in his vehicle," according to a warrant for his arrest. At one point, he told authorities that she told him to leave her alone or she would use her cellphone to call police.

    Rivera said he "blocked" his memory after that and came to at an intersection, according to the warrant. He noticed that there was an earpiece from headphones in his lap and found Tibbetts in his truck, the warrant states. He then hid her body in a cornfield, according to the warrant.

    Rivera eventually led investigators to Tibbetts' remains.

    An autopsy found Tibbetts had died of multiple sharp-force injuries.

    Rivera's trial is scheduled to begin April 16.

    https://www.insideedition.com/mollie...t-guilty-46919

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    Farm laborer convicted in 2018 stabbing death of Iowa runner

    By Ryan J. Foley
    AP

    IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A farm laborer was found guilty Friday in the abduction and killing of an Iowa college student who vanished while out for a run in 2018 and will face life behind bars for a crime that shocked the nation.

    A 12-member jury unanimously found Cristhian Bahena Rivera guilty of first-degree murder in the attack on University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who was described as so kind and friendly that investigators could find no one who spoke badly about her.

    Bahena Rivera, who came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico as a teenager, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Judge Joel Yates ordered Bahena Rivera, who has been in custody since his August 2018 arrest, to be held without bond pending a July 15 sentencing hearing.

    The verdict came after a two-week trial at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, in a case that fueled public anger against illegal immigration and concerns about random violence against women. The jury, which included nine white members and three of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish descent, deliberated for seven hours on Thursday and Friday.

    “This was the verdict that the evidence demanded,” said one of the prosecutors, Poweshiek County Attorney Bart Klaver, who said such violent crime almost never happens in his county of 18,000 people.

    Klaver said the verdict was an emotional moment for the family of Tibbetts, calling the outcome a “weight off of everyone’s shoulders.” Several of her relatives, including her mother, had watched the proceedings daily in a conference room across from the courtroom, where the public was banned due to COVID-19 protocols.

    Bahena Rivera’s defense attorneys, Chad and Jennifer Frese, said they were disappointed in the verdict and would appeal. They said their client had consistently since 2018 told them the story he shared on the witness stand about two masked men that he claims were responsible, even though prosecutors had never previously heard that claim.

    Jennifer Frese said that if the testimony had been coached by defense lawyers, “we would have come up with something better than that.”

    “We can tell you that getting to know Cristhian Bahena, we are very surprised that he would be the kind of person that would commit a crime like this,” Chad Frese said. “He is nothing but a soft-spoken, respectful, kind person.”

    They said they would renew their arguments that Bahena Rivera’s statements to police were coerced and should be suppressed, along with the discovery of Tibbetts’ body that followed.

    Tibbetts, who ran track and cross country in high school, never returned home after going for a routine run in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa on the evening of July 18, 2018. She was reported missing the next day after she didn’t show up for her summer job at a daycare, where she was working after completing her freshman year. Tibbetts had hoped to one day become a child psychologist.

    Her disappearance from the town of 1,700 was immediately deemed suspicious, and local, state and federal agencies joined hundreds of volunteers in a highly publicized search for her.

    Investigators say they broke the case open nearly a month later after obtaining surveillance video from a homeowner that shows, for a split second, a shadowy figure that appears to be Tibbetts running in the distance. The video shows a black Chevy Malibu with chrome mirrors and door handles driving past 20 seconds later, and back and forth several times in the next 20 minutes.

    A sheriff’s deputy spotted Bahena Rivera, who worked at a local dairy farm, driving the distinctive vehicle the next day. During a lengthy interrogation that began Aug. 20, 2018, Bahena Rivera said that he drove past Tibbetts while she was running and turned around to get another look because he found her attractive.

    He eventually said that he approached Tibbetts and fought with her after she tried to get away and threatened to call police. He claimed that he then “blacked out” but remembered driving with her body in the trunk of his car. He led investigators in the early morning hours of Aug. 21 to a remote cornfield where they found her badly decomposed body hidden under corn stalks.

    An autopsy found that Tibbetts died of sharp force injuries from several stab wounds to her head, neck and chest. DNA testing showed that her blood was found in the trunk of the Malibu, but investigators never found the murder weapon.

    Prosecutor Scott Brown praised the investigators whose persistence helped solve the case, noting they faced criticism during the trial from the defense.

    He said in a closing argument Thursday that Bahena Rivera killed Tibbetts out of anger after she rebuked him. He said Bahena Rivera also had a sexual motive, noting that Tibbetts was found partially naked with her legs spread when her body was found.

    During dramatic testimony Wednesday that surprised prosecutors, the 26-year-old Bahena Rivera denied that he killed Tibbetts. He claimed publicly for the first time that two masked men took him at gunpoint from his trailer, forced him to drive as one of them killed Tibbetts on a rural road and directed him to a rural area where he left her body. Bahena Rivera said the men threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and young daughter if he spoke out.

    Bahena Rivera’s defense suggested one of the men may have been Tibbetts’ boyfriend, Dalton Jack, who admitted during hours of difficult testimony that he had an affair with another woman and past anger problems. But police said they cleared Jack, who had bought an engagement ring and planned to soon propose marriage to Tibbetts, after establishing that he was out of town for work when Tibbetts vanished.

    Then-President Donald Trump, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and other Republicans had cited the vicious crime ahead of the 2018 midterm elections to call for harsher policies to deter illegal immigration. But their efforts eventually stopped after Tibbetts’ parents said the slaying should not be used to advance a political agenda that Tibbetts would have opposed.

    In a sign of how the case remains politicized, GOP U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa released a statement on Friday morning praising the guilty verdict as a just outcome, even though jurors were still deliberating at the time. Her staff quickly apologized for the error but re-released the statement after the verdict was announced.

    https://apnews.com/article/ia-state-...3d27ce986984df

  9. #9
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Bahena Rivera sentencing delayed, motion connects Xavior Harrelson case

    By KCRG News Staff

    CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - The Court ruled to delay sentencing of the man convicted of killing Mollie Tibbets until after a hearing on the motion for a new trial.

    This comes after defense attorneys for Cristhian Bahena Rivera filed a Motion for Continuance late Tuesday night.

    Bahena Rivera had been scheduled to be sentenced Thursday to a mandatory life in prison sentence. A jury convicted him in May of killing 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in Poweshiek County in 2018. During the trial, Bahena Rivera blamed two mystery men for killing Tibbetts and then leaving him with her body to hide in a cornfield.

    The Motion for Continuance filed earlier this week comes after a new appeal said an inmate came forward during the trial claiming a former cellmate had admitted to being involved in the killing of Mollie Tibbetts.

    The motion says the inmate was interviewed on May 26, before the trial ended.

    The inmate reported that another inmate, that documents refer to as Inmate 2, said he was staying in a “trap house” owned by a 50-year-old man involved in the sex trafficking trade. Inmate 2 admitted he saw Mollie Tibbetts bound and gagged at a second trap house that he had gone to.

    The document says Inmate 2 admitted to killing Mollie Tibbetts. The motion also claims a search warrant corroborates the “trap house” account. The account is being filed along with the Supplemental Motion for a New Trial.

    The motion focuses on James Manuel Lowe, 50, said to be operating a sex trafficking ring out of 405 East Market, New Sharon, Iowa in the summer of 2018.

    Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s defense team said it has found at least 10 children missing from Poweshiek County or adjoining counties from the past few years, including the Xavior Harrelson case.

    The motion says an investigation discovered that James Lowe was in a relationship with Xavior’s mother, Sarah Harrelson, and they lived together for a period of time.

    The motion also claims a violation of the Due Process Clause, saying based on newly discovered evidence, prosecutors failed to turn over reports involving investigations into the trap houses and kidnappings.

    Defense attorneys say they need more time to prepare for a new trial, which is why they’re calling for the delay.

    https://www.kcrg.com/2021/07/14/bahe...arrelson-case/
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  10. #10
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    In Mollie Tibbetts case, judge denies new trial request for killer

    Cristhian Bahena Rivera claimed two other men forced him at gunpoint to drive to the road where Mollie Tibbetts was running and killed her

    By Louis Casiano
    Fox News

    An Iowa judge on Monday denied a request for a new trial by a man convicted in the 2018 killing of Mollie Tibbetts, a University of Iowa student whose body was found in a cornfield weeks after she vanished while going on a run.

    The ruling by Judge Joel Yates clears the way for the Aug. 30 sentencing of Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who was convicted earlier this year of the slaying. Defense attorneys argued that others had committed the murder.

    Bahena Rivera, a farmhand living in the United States illegally, was convicted of first-degree murder and faces life in prison.

    "We are pleased that the judge upheld the jury’s verdict and we look forward to moving to sentencing," said Lynn Hicks, a spokesman for the state attorney general.

    Yates wrote that much of the evidence presented was known to them before the guilty verdict was handed down. He said any additional evidence would have to be revealed after the verdict.

    "In reviewing the evidence and testimony provided at trial, the court finds the verdict was not contrary to the weight of the evidence," Yates wrote.

    During the hearing, defense lawyers attempted to link Tibbets' death to a young woman's report of having been kidnapped and sexually assaulted at a home used for sex trafficking and the disappearance of an 11-year-old boy from the same county.

    While being questioned by investigators, Bahena Rivera told detectives that he encountered Tibbetts as she was running in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. He also led them to her body.

    Before his trial, he claimed two masked men kidnapped him at gunpoint and forced him to drive to where Tibbetts was running, killed her, put her body in the trunk of car and made him dispose of it. He said the men threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and young daughter if he revealed the plot.

    A 50-year-old suspected methamphetamine dealer has been investigated in both cases but hasn’t been charged in either, and prosecutors said he has no ties to Tibbetts.

    Prosecutors have said they were confident that Bahena Rivera killed Tibbetts and they pointed out that his own account of what happened didn’t align with what the two new witnesses told police.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/mollie-ti...r-denied-judge
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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