Brother of man accused of murder on UGA campus being sentenced for faking immigration documents

CLARKE COUNTY, Ga. — Diego Ibarra, the brother of the man accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus earlier this year, is set to be sentenced on Monday morning for possession of a fake green card.

In July, Ibarra, who is from Venezuela, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a fraudulent document in federal court.

He’s facing a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count.

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Diego Ibarra has been arrested and released several times over the years, despite having a hold placed on him by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Channel 2′s Tyisha Fernandes learned that in 2018, the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office changed the way they handled immigration holds.

“…Based on the totality of circumstances at that time, the policy was changed - to decline requests from (ICE) to hold inmates, known as “detainers,” that are not signed by a judge…,” they said in a statement.

Diego Ibarra was accused of biting a Border Patrol agent who arrested him, but was never prosecuted.

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• Diego Ibarra, brother of man accused of killing 22-year-old on UGA campus, to appear in court
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• Brother of man accused of killing 22-year-old on UGA campus caught with fake green card

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement put him in a program with an ankle monitor as an alternative to jail, but was released from that program the next day for some reason.

Police say he then cut off his ankle monitor and returned to Athens and getting a job at UGA in food service, even though Clarke County deputies arrested him three more times for DUI and shoplifting after he had several immigration holds on him.

Police initially thought that Diego Ibarra was his younger brother, Jose Ibarra, and that’s why they started looking at his background while investigating Riley’s murder.

Both brothers are accused of entering the country illegally.

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