suspect accused of murder Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student on the University of Georgia campus, has waived his right to a jury trial.

A judge granted the defense’s request for a bench trial for the suspect, Jose Ibarra, during a hearing in Athens-Clarke County on Tuesday.

The trial is scheduled to begin Friday before Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will issue a verdict in the case.

Her death became a rallying cry for immigration reform by many conservatives, including now President-elect Donald Trump. Trump mentioned her by name as early as Nov. 3 when he visited Macon, Georgia, in a final pitch to voters in the battleground state.

Jury selection was scheduled to begin in the case on Wednesday.

When asked by Haggard if he understood the jury trial waiver and if it was “freely, knowingly and intelligently signed and considered,” Ibarra said yes.

The defense also said they agree with their client’s decision to forego a jury trial and confirmed the form was properly translated into Spanish by an Ibarra court interpreter.

Last month, Haggard denied the defense’s motion for a change of venue in the high-profile case.

Ibarra, 26, had indicted by an Athens Clarke County grand jury on malice and felony murder and other offenses in May. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Riley, an Augusta University student, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she failed to return from a run. The indictment alleges that Ibarra killed her by “delivering blunt force trauma to her head and asphyxiating her” and severely disfigured her head by hitting her “multiple times” with a rock.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or obstructing a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The last charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — a jacket and gloves — implicating the crime of malicious murder.

He was also charged with peeping tom offence. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of another person who lived in an apartment on campus. The judge last month also denied a motion seeking to drop that charge from the case.

Ibarra was denied bond following his Feb. 23 arrest and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.

Police said they do not believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 — knew Riley and that this was a “murder of opportunity.”