JOSE IBARRA UPDATE/DENIED NEW TRIAL/LAKEN RILEY MURDER

The Independent -A judge has shut down Jose Ibarra’s bid for a new trial after he was convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley in a case that became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration.

Lawyers for Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant, argued his constitutional rights were violated when the judge declined two defense motions before trial.  One was a request to delay the trial to give an expert witness time to review and analyze DNA data. The other would have excluded some cellphone evidence.

Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who presided over the trial, wrote in an order Monday that the evidence of Ibarra's guilt presented by the state was “overwhelming and powerful.”  MORE AT Jose Ibarra denied a new trial after claiming his rights were violated