How a Series of Selfies Led to a Killer’s Conviction

A series of selfies taken by a murderer helped a prosecution build a damning case against him and put the killer behind bars.

On Wednesday, Jose Ibarra was found guilty of the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley.

Riley was murdered while she was out for a run at the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia on the morning of February 22, 2024. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Ibarra killed Riley after she fought off his attempt to rape her.

Ibarra was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He was convicted on three counts of felony murder and counts of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, and “peeping Tom” (in a separate incident earlier that day).

Last week, FBI Special Agent Jamie Hipkiss took the stand and showed the court numerous selfies taken on Ibarra’s phone that showed him wearing the same clothes as the suspect seen in surveillance footage on the day of Riley’s death.

A few hours before Riley was killed, a man in a black Adidas baseball cap and a grey sling bag was seen on CCTV footage at the door of an apartment at a university housing building on Rogers Road. At 6.52 A.M., the man peeped into the apartment window of a University of Georgia student and tried to open her door repeatedly.

The student called police and said the man outside her door had ducked. Campus security footage showed Ibarra had been wearing the same clothes in a selfie taken earlier that morning and in the days before.

“In surveillance footage taken earlier that day related to the Rogers Road ‘Peeping Tom’, you can see in the picture that is depicted on February 18, 2024, that he [Ibarra] is wearing a grey style sling bag that seems to be the same bag that is worn in the surveillance footage,” Hipkiss tells the court.

According to a report by The Telegraph of London, Ibarra’s selfies were also linked to surveillance footage filmed 15 minutes after Riley’s smart watch showed that her heart had stopped beating.

This footage — captured at 9.44 A.M. from one of Ibarra’s neighbor’s surveillance cameras — showed a man wearing the same outfit that Ibarra worn in his selfies, throwing a jacket stained with Riley’s blood into a blue recycling bin near his home.

When he dumps his jacket in the bin, the man is seen wearing a distinct patterned t-shirt. The FBI agent argued that the clothing worn by the man seen throwing out his victim’s bloodstained clothing was “consistent with” the t-shirt seen in Ibarra’s selfies earlier that day. Ibarra was also seen wearing a navy blue jacket in another photograph he took of himself hours before Riley’s murder.

“When we review the surveillance footage and we see him removing the navy blue jacket and stuffing it into the recycling bin in his apartment complex, he appears to be wearing that exact same shirt there,” Hipkiss told the court.