Laken Riley‘s mother and stepfather begged the judge to have “no mercy” ahead of the sentencing of Jose Ibarra, who was convicted Wednesday morning of killing the nursing student. The judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole following testimony from Allyson and John Phillips.
“Your honor, I am asking you to please give Jose Ibarra the same thing he gave us when he made the choice to take Laken’s life and destroy ours,” Riley’s mother said in court. “He showed no mercy on Laken when she was begging for her life. There’s no end to the pain and suffering that he inflicted on her family and her friends.”
On Wednesday morning, Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard read a guilty verdict for Ibarra, finding the 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant, who is in the United States illegally, guilty on all charges, including malice murder and felony murder.
Riley’s parents made an emotional plea after the conviction announcement and ahead of the judge’s sentencing of Ibarra. Prosecutors sought life in prison without the possibility of parole. The convicted murderer had waived his right to a jury trial and elected to have a bench trial, which made Haggard the sole person responsible for a verdict and sentencing.
“He ripped away every beautiful memory we will ever able to make with her again,” Allyson Phillips said tearfully. “This horrific individual robbed us all of our hopes and dreams for Laken.”
She added, choking back tears, “I’m asking you to please give this monster life without any chance of parole so that he never gets the chance to hurt anyone else over again.”
John Phillips praised his late stepdaughter as a “shining beacon” and a “beautiful person.” He went on to share a passage from one of her last journal entries that was dated two months before her death in which she was writing a letter to her future husband.
“‘To my future husband, I want you to know that I’m thinking about you and working every day to become the best wife I can be by working through my current relationships to best prepare me for ours and our kids one day,’” her stepfather said tearfully as he read her journal entry about her vision for her future life. “‘I’m focusing on God and what He defines as a faithful, Christian life and so that I can best embody those characteristics. I pray that you know that it is with my full faith and trust in God that I know that this relationship has been handcrafted by Him. I pray that we continue to glorify the Lord, prioritizing him in every aspect of our lives, and raise our family, our future family to be God-fearing Christians as well.’
“‘I pray God is the center of our relationship, as it is a gift from Him. I thank Him for you before I even know you, and I can’t wait to love you in the best way I know how for the rest of our lives. I pray you know and feel the importance of my love and hopes for our relationship. No matter what challenges we face, I pray that our trust in God and love for one another overrules the obstacle. May our relationship last forever. Your future wife, Laken.’”
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John Phillips continued to implore the judge to consider how Ibarra had “tragically and brutally” taken their “beautiful Laken” from them.
“It’s true that none of our lives will ever be the same,” he told the judge. “So today, I plead with this court to protect the world from this truly evil person by sentencing him to prison for life without the possibility of parole for any reason, so that he can never have the opportunity to do this.”