• Illegal alien Cristhian Bahena Rivera receives life sentence for murder

    From But But Sanctuary Cities! Blue Wave@21:1/5 to All on Fri Oct 8 02:21:52 2021
    XPost: alt.fan.states.iowa, alt.politics.immigration, alt.journalism.newspapers XPost: sac.politics

    (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
    killed Mollie Tibbetts.' That's what he's saying. That's what
    the statements all point to," he added.

    Rivera's testimony in his own defense sharply contradicted his
    earlier admissions, though.

    He testified he was taking a shower when two unknown, masked men
    broke into his trailer and demanded his help. One had a knife
    and the other had a gun, he said.

    He testified that they forced themselves into his black Chevy
    Malibu and told him to drive toward town. That was when he said
    they came across a young woman he now knows to be Tibbetts.

    Rivera testified that he was told to stop, while the man with
    the knife exited the car. He said both men then got out of the
    vehicle and he heard them opening and closing the trunk. When
    the men left, he said he found Tibbetts' body in the trunk of
    the car. He said he took her body out of the trunk, placed her
    in a corn field and covered her body with corn stalks.

    Rivera said he didn't know why the men sought his help. He
    testified that he falsely confessed to police because he feared
    the men would harm his daughter and ex-girlfriend and because he
    thought telling investigators what they wanted to hear would
    help him.

    CNN's Ray Sanchez and Carma Hassan contributed to this report.

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/us/mollie-tibbetts-murder-
    sentence/index.html

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