The decide presiding over the Mollie Tibbetts homicide case is ready to difficulty a written choice on the protection’s request for a brand new trial after listening to hours of testimony on Tuesday.
Attorneys for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 27, launched new proof throughout a listening to at Poweshiek County Courthouse that they declare will exonerate their consumer, who was discovered responsible of murdering the Iowa faculty pupil in Could.
The protection has sought to hyperlink Tibbetts’s dying to a different girl’s report of being kidnapped and sexually assaulted in the summertime of 2018, and the latest disappearance of 11-year-old boy Xavior Harrelson.
They declare Tibbetts might have been kidnapped as a part of an Iowa intercourse trafficking ring headed up by 50-year-old James Lowe – the previous live-in boyfriend of Harrelson’s mother.
Additionally they introduced testimony from two new witnesses, who declare a 21-year-old native man had confessed to being Tibbetts’s true killer.
In his testimony Tuesday, Iowa Division of Prison Investigation agent Trent Vileta rejected the protection’s claims and expressed confidence that the proper man was convicted.
Attorneys for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 27, (proper) launched new proof Tuesday throughout a listening to at Poweshiek County Courthouse that they declare will exonerate their consumer, who was discovered responsible of murdering Mollie Tibbetts
The protection has sought to hyperlink Tibbetts’s dying to 2 native males, together with 50-year-old suspected meth seller and ‘intercourse trafficker’ James Lowe
Prosecutors famous Lowe, a suspected methamphetamine seller, had been investigated in each abduction circumstances however hasn’t been charged in both, and say he has no tie to Tibbetts in any respect.
Vileta, who served because the lead investigator within the case, stated the claims in opposition to Lowe needs to be disregarded given the proof tying native farmhand Bahena Rivera to Tibbetts’s abduction and stabbing dying.
He famous that Bahena Rivera partially confessed to stalking Tibbetts whereas she was out for a run, killing her and dumping her physique in a cornfield, the place he led investigators after a prolonged interrogation in August 2018.
He stated that Bahena Rivera’s statements have been ‘fully corroborated from begin to end.’
‘Cristhian Rivera murdered Mollie Tibbetts,’ Vileta testified.
After listening to hours of testimony Tuesday, Choose Joel Yates stated he would take the matter beneath advisement and difficulty a written ruling as quickly as attainable.
Yates instructed Bahena Rivera’s attorneys at occasions that he was having bother seeing any relevance to the case in opposition to their consumer.
Jurors discovered Bahena Rivera responsible of first-degree homicide after a two-week trial in Could.
They rejected his testimony through which he claimed that two masked males kidnapped him at gunpoint from his trailer, compelled him to drive to the place Tibbetts was operating on a rural highway, killed her, put her physique in his trunk and made him eliminate it.
Division of Prison Investigation Particular Agent Trent Vileta expressed confidence Tuesday that the proper man was convicted, rejecting protection claims that her abduction could possibly be tied to 2 different native males
Bahena Rivera, who illegally entered the US from Mexico as a teen, stated he did not inform investigators in regards to the two males earlier as a result of they’d threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and younger daughter.
He was to be sentenced to life in jail earlier this month.
However on the finish of his trial, two new witnesses got here ahead independently of each other and instructed police {that a} native 21-year-old man, Gavin Jones, instructed them he had killed Tibbetts.
Protection stated the data from the witnesses might help a hyperlink between Tibbetts’ dying and the Could disappearance of 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson
Protection attorneys requested a brand new trial based mostly on that and different newly found data, and Yates agreed to postpone sentencing whereas he thought of their request.
A type of witnesses, inmate Arne Maki, testified Tuesday that Jones instructed him of his involvement final 12 months once they have been each held on the Keokuk County Jail.
Jones stated he and one other man stabbed Tibbetts after she was held at a intercourse trafficking ‘lure home’ the place they have been staying and framed Bahena Rivera for the dying, Maki testified.
An older man in command of the home had ordered her killed, Maki stated.
Maki stated he got here ahead after seeing information clips about Bahena Rivera’s testimony through which he stated two different males have been liable for the crime.
Maki, 46, stated he was getting no profit for his testimony, saying he wished to ‘do the proper factor.’
‘I simply wish to say one factor, my ideas and prayers exit to the Tibbetts household,’ Maki stated, after his testimony concluded.
Harrelson, 11, disappeared on Could 27 from his house at a trailer park in Montezuma, Poweshiek County (pictured above) – the identical rural Iowa county the place Tibbetts was kidnapped and killed whereas out for a run again on July 2018
Jones has denied any involvement and prosecutors labored Tuesday to clear him.
Prosecutor Bart Klaver famous that Jones was in a rehabilitation facility in the summertime of 2018 after which in an assisted residing facility beneath state supervision.
Additionally they famous that Tibbetts was not reduce up and wrapped in plastic, as Maki testified that Jones had instructed him.
Vileta stated that neither Jones nor the 50-year-old man got here up throughout the investigation.
Below cross-examination, he stated investigators hadn’t examined their DNA to find out whether or not both is linked to 2 unidentified samples discovered together with Tibbetts’ blood within the trunk of Bahena Rivera’s automobile.
Bahena Rivera’s DNA was not a match, and investigators by no means recovered a homicide weapon.
At trial, a state crime lab analyst testified that it would not be uncommon for others’ DNA to be within the trunk, which contained a soccer, a fishing pole and different objects.
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