XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   IOWA CITY, Iowa — A man was sentenced to life in prison without   
   parole Monday in the abduction and killing of University of Iowa   
   student Mollie Tibbetts, three years after she disappeared while   
   out for an evening run.   
      
   Judge Joel Yates' sentence for Cristhian Bahena Rivera was   
   mandatory for a first-degree murder conviction in Iowa, which   
   does not have the death penalty. The 27-year-old former   
   farmhand, who testified that he came to the U.S. illegally from   
   Mexico as a teenager, has been jailed since his arrest in August   
   2018.   
      
   Yates pointedly rejected defense claims that others were   
   responsible for the crime.   
      
   "Mr. Bahena Rivera, you and you alone forever changed the lives   
   of those who loved Mollie Tibbetts," he said.   
      
   The sentence caps a case that inflamed anger over illegal   
   immigration, fueled fears about violence against solo female   
   runners, and took several noteworthy twists during and after   
   Bahena Rivera's trial in May.   
      
   Tibbetts' mother, Laura Calderwood, addressed Bahena Rivera in a   
   victim impact statement read to the court.   
      
   "Mollie was a young woman who simply wanted to go for a quiet   
   run on the evening of July 18 and you chose to violently and   
   sadistically end that life," she wrote.   
      
   Calderwood recalled being told by tearful investigators that her   
   20-year-old daughter's body had been found, and racing to inform   
   relatives before they learned the news from the media. The   
   hardest conversation was with Mollie's grandmother, who was in   
   disbelief that someone "could harm such a beautiful, vibrant   
   young woman so full of promise," she said.   
      
   She said the killing caused Hispanic workers to flee the area in   
   fear, prevented Mollie's boyfriend from being able to give her   
   the engagement ring he had purchased, and meant her father would   
   never walk his only daughter down the aisle.   
      
   "Because of your actions Mr. Rivera, I will never get to see my   
   daughter become a mother," Calderwood said.   
      
   Tibbetts vanished on a rural road outside her hometown of   
   Brooklyn, Iowa, population 1,700, while out for a run on July   
   18, 2018. Family members and co-workers feared something was   
   wrong when Tibbetts did not show up for her summer job at a   
   daycare the next morning.   
      
   Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers searched for   
   weeks but came up empty. Investigators began focusing on Bahena   
   Rivera, who worked under an alias at a nearby dairy farm, after   
   finding a homeowner's surveillance video that appeared to show   
   his Chevy Malibu repeatedly driving past Tibbetts while she ran.   
      
   After a lengthy interrogation, Bahena Rivera led authorities to   
   a cornfield where he had buried Tibbetts' body under leaves and   
   stalks. Only her bright running shoes were visible. An autopsy   
   found she had been stabbed several times.   
      
   Bahena Rivera told investigators that he approached Tibbetts   
   because he found her attractive, and that he fought her after   
   she threatened to call the police. He said he then blacked out   
   and came to as he was driving with her body in his trunk.   
      
   Prosecutors suggested Bahena Rivera had a sexual motive, noting   
   Tibbetts was wearing only socks and a sports bra and that her   
   legs were spread when her body was found. They built their case   
   around the surveillance video, his partial confession and DNA   
   evidence of Tibbetts' blood in his trunk.   
      
   "Based upon the facts and circumstances of this case, it is very   
   well deserved," prosecutor Scott Brown said of the life sentence.   
      
   Bahena Rivera's lawyers argued that his confession was false and   
   coerced, and their client gave surprise testimony at trial   
   sharing a different account. Bahena Rivera testified that two   
   masked men kidnapped him from his trailer at gunpoint, made him   
   drive while they attacked Tibbetts, instructed him on where to   
   dispose of her body, and told him to stay quiet or that his   
   young daughter and ex-girlfriend would be killed.   
      
   The defense sought to cast suspicion on several others,   
   including Tibbetts' boyfriend and a local deputy who lives next   
   to where Tibbetts' body was found.   
      
   Prosecutors called Bahena Rivera's testimony a work of fiction   
   and a unanimous 12-member jury found him guilty.   
      
   But two people immediately came forward to tell police that a 21-   
   year-old man with a history of violence had confessed to them   
   that he had killed Tibbetts. Separately, a woman had told police   
      
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