The wife of Laken Riley’s suspected killer Jose Antonio Ibarra reportedly accused him of knowing something about the student’s death in a jailhouse call, an FBI employee testified. “What happened to that girl?” Layling Franco asked Ibarra in Spanish in a May 11 phone call that the suspect made to his wife from jail. The call was played in court on Monday, November 18.
The call was summarised in English by FBI staff specialist Abeisis Ramirez, who listened to about 400 of the suspect’s calls from jail, reported New York Post. Ibarra is standing trial in Athens, Georgia, for the Georgia nursing student’s murder. After waiving his right to a jury trial, the Venezuelan migrant is being tried by a judge. He faces life behind bars if convicted.
The tense phone call
“Are you not going to tell the truth?” Franco told Ibarra, according to Ramirez.
“What happened to that girl?” she demanded.
According to Ramirez, Ibarra dismissively told his wife, “Layling, enough. Layling, enough.”
During the tense conversation, Franco told Ibarra multiple times that she was “fed up” with him. She repeatedly accused him of having knowledge about the murder, Ramirez said.
Franco said that it was “crazy” that investigators only found Ibarra’s DNA on Riley, and that he did not even call 911 if he saw someone dying. Ibarra told Franco that on the day of the murder, he was at the University of Georgia campus looking for a job.
Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, was seen sobbing in court as the phone call was played.
Franco previously told New York Post that Ibarra was generally a calm person. “We got married so we could join our asylum cases,” she said. “He was the person I thought I could see through. We’ve known each other our entire lives.”
“He wasn’t aggressive, none of that. We had problems as a couple but our problems weren’t physical. We wouldn’t punch but we’d raise our voices,” she added.
