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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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