XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   The trial in a murder case that rocked the American Heartland   
   began on Wednesday with a prosecutor telling an Iowa jury that   
   the evidence will show that farmworker Cristhian Bahena Rivera,   
   a Mexican national, abducted University of Iowa student Mollie   
   Tibbetts while she was jogging, stabbed her seven to 12 times   
   and dumped her body in a cornfield.   
      
   In his opening statement to the predominantly white Scott County   
   jury of eight women and seven men, prosecutor Bart Klaver asked   
   the panel to focus on three things: the defendant's car was   
   captured on security video circling the 20-year-old Tibbetts   
   around the time she vanished in 2018, her blood was discovered   
   in the trunk of his vehicle, and his own statements to   
   investigators implicated him.   
      
   "Ladies and gentlemen, when you examine the evidence together,   
   there can be no other conclusion than the defendant killed   
   Mollie Tibbets," Klaver said.   
      
   In an unusual move, Bahena Rivera's attorneys deferred giving an   
   opening statement until the state concludes its case.   
      
   Bahena Rivera, an undocumented immigrant who speaks little   
   English, sat in the Davenport courtroom dressed in a white shirt   
   and dark slacks with headphones on to listen to the trial with   
   the aid of a Spanish interpreter. He pleaded not guilty to first-   
   degree murder.   
      
   The high-profile trial was moved to Scott County from Poweshiek   
   County due to the enormous pre-trial publicity, including   
   statements from former President Donald Trump, who alleged that   
   Bahena Rivera was an example of a broken immigration system.   
      
   Rivera came to the U.S. illegally, according to officials, and   
   allegedly provided false forms of ID that were verified through   
   the Social Security Administration's verification system,   
   according to his employer.   
      
   Tibbetts' boyfriend admits to affair   
   Defense lawyer Chad Frese, who's defending Bahena Rivera with   
   help from his wife, attorney Jennifer Frese, immediately   
   attempted to undermine the state's case with a blistering cross-   
   examination of the prosecution's second witness -- Tibbett's   
   live-in boyfriend, Dalton Jack.   
      
   Frese seemed to portray Jack, who enlisted in the U.S. Army   
   about three months after Tibbett's badly decomposed body was   
   discovered, as the villain in the case, a possible suspect.   
   Prosecutors maintain that Jack has an ironclad alibi: He was   
   about 140 miles away working on a Mississippi River bridge   
   construction project in Dubuque, Iowa, on the evening of July   
   18, 2018, when Tibbetts disappeared from a country road in their   
   hometown of Brooklyn, in Poweshiek County.   
      
   Frese began his questioning by getting the 22-year-old Jack to   
   confirm that Tibbetts, whom he began dating in high school, was   
   the love of his life and that he'd hoped to marry her.   
      
   Over repeated objections from prosecutors, Frese got Jack to   
   admit that he had cheated on Tibbetts, and that Tibbetts had   
   learned he had strayed from the woman he was having an affair   
   with, and that she confirmed it by going through his phone and   
   finding messages to her.   
      
   Jack testified that he initially withheld the information about   
   the affair from law enforcement investigators, who, at the time,   
   were searching for Tibbetts.   
      
   "I didn't deem it necessary," he said. "I didn't think it was   
   pertinent to the case."   
      
   Jack also testified that he and Tibbetts had an argument over   
   his infidelity three days before she disappeared and that they   
   had discussed breaking up about a month earlier.   
      
   He testified that while he wants Bahena Rivera to be convicted   
   of killing Tibbetts, he did not want to take the witness stand   
   in the trial.   
      
   "I didn't want to be in the same room as your defendant here,"   
   he said, staring at Bahena Rivera seated at the defense table.   
      
   Under follow-up questioning from prosecutor Scott Brown, Jack   
   testified that he's been cooperating with the prosecution in   
   preparation for the trial, even while deployed to Iraq.   
      
   Asked by Brown why he initially was apprehensive about   
   testifying, Jack said of Bahena Rivera, "I'm obviously not his   
   biggest fan," adding, "I wholeheartedly believe he's guilty."   
      
   Frese informed Judge Joel Yates that he plans to call Jack back   
   to the witness stand when the defense presents its case in the   
   trial, which is scheduled to last about 10 days.   
      
   Avid runner   
   Klaver began his opening statement by telling the jury that   
   Tibbetts was 19 at the time of her death and was preparing to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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