ATHENS, Ga. — The Laken Riley murder case was back in court on Friday.
Attorneys defending her accused killer, Jose Ibarra, asked a judge to stop prosecutors from using his fingerprint and cell phone evidence.
Attorney John Donnolly argued there are no scientific studies to prove the reliability and error rate of fingerprinting.
He said the fingerprint in question came from Riley’s phone. Prosecutors plan to call an examiner to the witness stand during the trial who will testify the phone fingerprint came from Ibarra’s left thumb.
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Donnelly also questioned the expertise of that witness.
Special Prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge, “Fingerprint evidence is so widely accepted.”
Defense attorneys also asked the judge to throw out evidence collected from two cell phones seized from Ibarra’s apartment.
“Those phones were not kept safe, number one,” said defense attorney Kaitlyn Beck. “They were tampered with, number two.”
An FBI agent testified that it is policy for investigators to put seized phones into airplane mode to preserve data.
“The point is, without a warrant they tried to enter Mr. Ibarra’s phone,” said Beck.
She said taking the phones during his apartment search violated his rights.
“All of this could have been prevented if they had just, before they seized the phones, gone back to the court, gotten a warrant to seize them, put them in airplane mode and seized them.”
The prosecution fired back.
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“While phones were seized, phones were not searched until a search warrant was obtained.”
Beck then called an agent to the stand who said she had to use special technology to unlock the phone and see what was on it.
“There is no way it is even possible, and the evidence is uncontroverted at this point, the agents, law enforcement officers, or anyone could search that phone.”
The judge will issue a written decision before jury selection starts on Nov. 13.
Judge Patrick Haggard did make one decision Friday. He said he would not approve Ibarra’s request to move the trial forward by at least six weeks.
His attorneys argued they needed more time to find an expert who could discuss a type of technology used to test some of the DNA in the case. It’s called TrueAllele.
“It’s been around for over a decade,” argued Ross.
The hearing lasted nearly four hours Friday, and Ibarra told the judge he did not have any problems understanding what was discussed.
He listened to a Spanish interpreter through headphones.
Ibarra is from Venezuela. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he immigrated to the U.S. through El Paso, Texas in 2022. Border Patrol sent him to New York where he was supposed to request asylum.
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