XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   (CNN)A farm worker has been sentenced to life in prison with no   
   eligibility for parole for first-degree murder in the abduction   
   and fatal stabbing of college student Mollie Tibbetts in July   
   2018.   
      
   The sentencing comes just over three years after the body of the   
   20-year-old woman was found in an Iowa cornfield.   
      
   Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a 27-year-old undocumented immigrant   
   from Mexico, admitted in an August 2018 interview with police   
   that he followed Tibbetts while she was out for an evening run,   
   got angry at her and "blacked out," according to an arrest   
   affidavit and testimony at trial. He said he later came to and   
   realized she was bleeding in his vehicle's trunk and he then   
   buried her in a remote Iowa cornfield, prosecutors said.   
      
   Rivera then led police to the cornfield, where investigators   
   found her body with fatal stab wounds, prosecutors said.   
      
   "Mr. Rivera, I selected this particular sentence for you after   
   considering the nature of the offense committed by you, the harm   
   to the victim and the victim's family, your need for   
   rehabilitation and the necessity for protecting the community   
   from further offenses by you and others," Judge Joel Yates said   
   at the sentencing.   
      
   After Rivera was found guilty, prosecutor Scott Brown said the   
   Tibbetts family was "relieved" and "pleased" with the decision.   
      
   "The family, and other people that are that close to it, they   
   live with it forever," Brown said of the tragedy. "We hope that   
   in the end ... when these cases are over, we can bring a sense   
   of justice to them, even though we would never have the ability   
   to bring Mollie back."   
      
   Tibbetts disappeared after a run   
   Tibbetts disappeared after a run in Brooklyn, Iowa, sparking an   
   extensive search that drew national attention.   
      
   She had been studying psychology at the University of Iowa and   
   wanted to get a doctorate and write books, her father said.   
   Rivera, meanwhile, had worked for four years at Yarrabee Farms,   
   a nearby dairy farm.   
      
   Her death and Rivera's undocumented status pushed the tragic   
   story into the rancorous partisan political debate around   
   immigration. Former President Donald Trump brought up her story   
   as part of his push to vilify undocumented immigrants as rapists   
   and killers, though the existing evidence shows undocumented   
   status does not correlate with criminality.   
      
   Rob Tibbetts, Mollie's father, has repeatedly called on   
   politicians to stop using his daughter's death to make points   
   against immigration, saying she believed these views were   
   "profoundly racist."   
      
   Surprise testimony about masked men   
   The prosecution based its case on three key aspects:   
   surveillance video of Rivera's vehicle near Tibbetts, his   
   admissions to investigators in August 2018 and her DNA found in   
   his trunk.   
      
   "When you put this evidence together, there can be no other   
   conclusion than that the defendant killed Mollie Tibbetts,"   
   Poweshiek County Attorney Bart Klaver said at the start of the   
   trial.   
      
   After more than a month of searching for her, the break in the   
   case came when home surveillance video surfaced from the night   
   of July 18, 2018, showing the silhouette of a woman running --   
   as well as repeated sightings of a black Chevy Malibu,   
   prosecutors said. An investigator later spotted the vehicle and   
   identified the driver as Rivera, Klaver said.   
      
   After initially denying knowing about Tibbetts, he then admitted   
   he had seen her the night she disappeared, said he found her   
   attractive and said he circled back for a second look, Klaver   
   told the jury. He allegedly admitted he had followed Tibbetts   
   and jogged next to her.   
      
   She had threatened to call the police, and Rivera admitted he   
   got angry and fought with her, Klaver told the court.   
      
   "The next thing he remembers" was that he was driving and   
   realized Tibbetts was in his trunk, Klaver said. Rivera   
   allegedly admitted he took her bloody body out of the trunk,   
   carried her into a field and placed corn stalks over her body,   
   according to Klaver.   
      
   He then led investigators to the scene, where her body was found   
   hidden under corn stalks, prosecutors said.   
      
   Although Rivera did not explicitly tell investigators he stabbed   
   Tibbetts, prosecutors said that was the only conclusion.   
      
   "He says that he blacked out. He didn't black out. He just   
   didn't tell (an investigator)," Brown said Thursday.   
      
   "He's telling the officers, in telling those statements, 'I   
      
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