suspect accused of murder Laken Riley, 22, was “looking for” women on the University of Georgia campus the day the nursing student was found brutally murdered on school grounds, a prosecutor said in opening statements Friday.

Special prosecutor Sheila Ross told the court that during that “hunt,” the defendant, Jose Ibarra, encountered Riley while she was out for a morning jog on Feb. 22.

“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he repeatedly hit her skull with a rock,” Ross said. “That’s what this case is about.”

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

Ross said he will present forensic, digital and video evidence that will “point to one person, Jose Ibarra, as Laken Riley’s killer.”

Among the evidence, Ross said a Garmin watch that Riley had just received for Christmas showed that he stopped running at 9:10 a.m., seven minutes after he left his apartment to run the campus track.

“Something’s going on. He’s doing something to her to make her stop,” Ross said. “She initiates the SOS feature on her phone and calls 911 and it hangs up immediately.”

Ross said Riley and Ibarra struggled over her iPhone and the 911 call ended on the phone. The muffled call, which lasted just over a minute, was played in court, during which the dispatcher repeatedly said “hello” and asked: “Can anyone hear me?” when he received no response. Forensic evidence shows Ibarra’s fingerprint was left on the phone, which was found near Riley’s body in the wooded area, Ross said.

About four minutes later, the Garmin watch was moved 65 feet into the woods, Ross said. Then, at 9:28 a.m., his heart rate stopped, the watch data showed, according to Ross.

“Her encounter with him was long, her fight with him was fierce, and that’s what the Garmin data shows,” Ross said.

Ross said the defendant left additional evidence in that fight, including Ibarra’s DNA under one of Riley’s fingernails. When detectives interviewed Ibarra during their investigation into Riley’s murder, he had scratches on his arms, wrist, hand and the back of his head, Ross said.

“The evidence will show that Laken fought. She fought for her life. She fought for her dignity, and in that fight, she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind,” Ross said.

Defense attorney Dustin Kirby countered in his opening statement that the prosecutor’s evidence was “circumstantial” and that any intent to commit a sexual assault was “speculation.” He also tried to cast doubt on fingerprint testing.

Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial this week. Judge H. Patrick Haggard granted the defense’s motion for a mistrial Tuesday, a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin.

The case now goes to Haggard’s Athens-Clarke County courtroom, which will issue a verdict.

“I waived a jury trial in this case with the hope and confidence that, despite the nature of this evidence, you could reach a verdict that was not just a way to ease this family’s suffering, but was based on an understanding unbiased and honest. evaluating the evidence in this case,” Kirby said. “If that happens and the presumption of innocence is respected, there should not be enough evidence to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ibarra is guilty of the crimes charged.”

Ibarra, 26, faces a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to malice murder, felony murder and other offenses.

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

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 the indictment claims Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and asphyxiating her” and severely disfigured her head by hitting her “several times” with a rock.

Riley’s body was found hidden, covered in leaves, after she was reported missing by her roommates when they couldn’t get hold of her and discovered one of her AirPods while searching for her, a Ross said. Body camera footage from the University of Georgia police officer who found Riley’s body was played in court Friday. Haggard paused before the footage was played to allow anyone who wanted to leave the courtroom to do so.

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.

Ross said in her opening statement that Ibarra was filmed throwing away a jacket and three disposable black kitchen gloves near his apartment complex at 9:44 a.m. the day Riley was killed. The thumb of one of the gloves had a hole in it, and Riley’s blood was recovered on the gloves, she said.

The officer who found the jacket in a dumpster the night of the crime testified Friday that there were leaves and dark stains on the jacket and dark hair was wrapped in buttons.

Ibarra was also charged with felony peeping tom. 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 denied a motion seeking to drop that charge from the case.

Ross said in her opening statement that on the morning of Riley’s murder, Ibarra was seen on video going to a female student’s apartment several times. The student called 911 at 7:57 a.m. to report someone was trying to open her apartment door, Ross said.

Haggard also denied the defense’s request for a change of venue in the high-profile case.

Ibarra has been held without bond at the Clarke County Jail since his Feb. 23 arrest.