XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   Cristhian Bahena Rivera, accused of murdering University of Iowa   
   student Mollie Tibbetts as she was jogging, has been found   
   guilty by an Iowa jury.   
      
   Bahena Rivera, a 26-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico,   
   was found guilty by the jury of first-degree murder for   
   allegedly killing Tibbetts, 20, and hiding her body in a   
   cornfield in the rural city of Brooklyn, Iowa, in July 2018.   
      
   Bahena Rivera nodded his head slightly when the verdict was read.   
      
   The jury deliberated for seven hours over Thursday and Friday   
   and all were in agreement with the guilty verdict. In Iowa, the   
   sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison without the   
   possibility of parole.   
      
   Bahena Rivera's sentencing will take place at 9:30 a.m. on July   
   15 in Poweshiek County. He was granted no bond pending   
   sentencing.   
      
   "We're disappointed," defense attorney Chad Frese said following   
   the verdict. "They certainly came to their decision. We'll   
   respect their decision. We're explore our options and go from   
   there."   
      
   The case made national headlines as Tibbetts' disappearance   
   sparked a monthlong search.   
      
   The Davenport, Iowa, courtroom heard two wildly contrasting   
   theories of what happened to Tibbetts in the case.   
      
   In a shocking twist, Bahena Rivera, who speaks little English,   
   testified in his own defense Wednesday, claiming he was   
   kidnapped by two masked and armed men, who forced him to drive   
   to where Tibbetts was jogging and one of them killed her and put   
   her body in his car's trunk.   
      
   But that story didn't match the statements he told investigators   
   during an Aug. 20, 2018 interview.   
      
   Spanish-speaking police officer, Pamela Romero, who was present   
   for that interview, testified in the trial that Bahena Rivera   
   implicated himself in Tibbetts' death.   
      
   Romero testified that Bahena Rivera confessed that he did see   
   Tibbetts that day, claiming he found her attractive and followed   
   her. She said he stopped his car and began jogging alongside   
   Tibbetts who threatened to call the police.   
      
   Anger is what motivated Bahena Rivera to stab Tibbetts nine to   
   12 times, Romero said in her testimony.   
      
   Prosecutor Scott Brown said during the trial that Bahena Rivera   
   told Romero he "blacked out" and didn't remember Tibbetts was in   
   the trunk of his car until he looked down and saw her wireless   
   earbud in his lap. In his testimony, Bahena Rivera admitted that   
   he removed Tibbetts from his trunk and dumped her body in a   
   cornfield.   
      
   Romero testified that after 11 hours of questioning, Bahena   
   Rivera led investigators to the cornfield, where they found   
   Tibbetts' badly decomposed body about 500 feet down a row of   
   tall corn, covered in leaves.   
      
   Prosecutor Scott Brown dismissed Bahena Rivera's testimony as a   
   "figment of his imagination" in his closing summation in the   
   courtroom, pointing to evidence including surveillance video of   
   his black Chevrolet Malibu circling the area where Tibbetts was   
   running, her DNA found in the trunk of Bahena Rivera's car and   
   his earlier confession.   
      
   Defense attorney Frese argued that investigators "targeted"   
   Rivera, and "cherry-picked facts" to fit their theory due to   
   intense pressure to solve the case. In closing arguments, Frese   
   alleged that Romero and other investigators forced a "false   
   confession" from Bahena Rivera.   
      
   ABC News' Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.   
      
   https://abcnews.go.com/US/guilty-verdict-murder-iowa-student-   
   mollie-tibbetts/story?id=77961292   
      
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