XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   The trial of a Mexican national for the murder of Mollie   
   Tibbetts took a wild twist on Wednesday when the defendant   
   dropped a bombshell from the witness stand -- claiming he was   
   kidnapped by two masked and armed men, who forced him to drive   
   to where the 20-year-old University of Iowa student was jogging   
   and that one of them killed her and put her body in his car's   
   trunk.   
      
   In a surprise move, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 26, testified in   
   his own defense in a Davenport, Iowa, courtroom and detailed the   
   never-before-heard scenario of the 2018 slaying that sent   
   shockwaves across the nation.   
      
   Bahena Rivera testified that on July 18, 2018, the day Tibbetts   
   went missing, he emerged from taking a shower at the trailer   
   where he lived and found two strangers in his living room.   
      
   "They were both wearing sweaters and their faces (were)   
   covered," Bahena Rivera said through a Spanish interpreter. "One   
   of them was bigger and a little bit fatter. The other one was   
   about my stature."   
      
   He testified that the larger man had a gun and the other had a   
   knife.   
      
   "They said I should not do anything stupid and everything was   
   going to be OK," testified Bahena Rivera, an undocumented   
   immigrant who said that at age 17, he paid a coyote human   
   trafficker money his family scraped together to smuggle him   
   across the Rio Grande on an inflatable raft packed with people.   
      
   He said the men whispered to each other for a "long while" and   
   then ordered him to go with them to his car, a black Chevrolet   
   Malibu.   
      
   'We saw a person jogging'   
   Bahena Rivera said the bigger man got in the backseat and the   
   smaller man sat next to him in the front. He claimed they   
   ordered him to drive into the nearby town of Brooklyn, Iowa.   
      
   "They told me to drive straight. One of them said to the other   
   one something about someone running," Bahena Rivera testified.   
      
   He said they drove through town and out to rural 385th Avenue,   
   where they "saw a person jogging." He said he now realizes the   
   jogger was Tibbetts.   
      
   "We just continued driving, and then they asked me to turn   
   around," said Bahena Rivera.   
      
   MORE: Trial for man accused of killing Mollie Tibbetts: Key   
   takeaways from Day 5   
   He said that as they drove, the two assailants crouched down in   
   their seats as if they didn't want to be seen.   
      
   Bahena Rivera claimed he drove past Tibbetts three or four   
   times. He said the last time they drove past her she was jogging   
   in the opposite direction back into town.   
      
   "We continued forward, and they asked me to turn and go back,"   
   he said.   
      
   Tibbetts' boyfriend had alibi   
      
   He said before they reached Tibbetts, he was ordered to stop,   
   and the smaller man got out of the car and headed in the   
   direction of Tibbetts. He claimed the other man remained in the   
   back seat and they waited for 10 to 12 minutes.   
      
   Bahena Rivera claimed that as they waited, he heard the man in   
   the back seat whispering to himself.   
      
   "What I heard him say was, 'Come on, Jack,'" Bahena Rivera   
   testified.   
      
   The testimony came a day after the defense called Dalton Jack,   
   Tibbetts' boyfriend who had initially testified for the   
   prosecution, back to the witness stand. Jack had admitted he had   
   an affair with a woman and that Tibbetts had found out and   
   threatened to leave him about a month before her death.   
      
   Defense attorneys Jennifer Frese and her husband, Chad Frese,   
   have insinuated throughout the trial that Jack was involved in   
   Tibbetts' killing, but prosecutors said Jack had a solid alibi:   
   He testified that he was working on a bridge construction   
   project in Dubuque, Iowa, about 140 miles from Brooklyn, the day   
   Tibbetts went missing and that he had nothing to do with her   
   death.   
      
   Bahena Rivera testified that he did not know Jack and that he   
   wasn't referring to him as the one the assailant was talking   
   about.   
      
   He testified that the smaller man returned to the car and asked   
   him to drive forward about 300 meters, or 1,000 feet. He said   
   they stopped again and the smaller man asked him to shut the car   
   off and give him the keys.   
      
   He said the man got out, and he heard his trunk open.   
      
   "I just heard a movement in the car and the trunk close," Bahena   
   Rivera testified.   
      
   He said the smaller man got back in the car and ordered him to   
   drive straight. He claimed they drove several miles at a high   
   rate of speed.   
      
   Bahena Rivera testified that they drove to a white house next to   
      
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