The convicted murderer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley may now end up escaping justice. Illegal alien Jose Ibarra is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for Miss Riley's murder, but now the sentencing judge, Patrick Haggard, has signed off on an order that Ibarra undergo a mental evaluation to determine whether he was fit to stand trial.
Laken Riley’s killer cinched a major court win when a judge ruled the illegal immigrant should be mentally evaluated after his lawyers claimed he wasn’t competent to stand trial last year.
Jose Ibarra — a Tren de Aragua gangbanger — was convicted of the vicious murder of the promising 22-year-old nursing student in November and was sentenced to life without parole by Judge Patrick Haggard.
Haggard, however, on Thursday signed off on an order that Ibarra be evaluated after his lawyers last month claimed he lacked the mental wherewithal to help prepare his own defense, to understand his case and when he agreed that Haggard could decide his guilt rather than a jury.
Ibarra’s attorneys — who are handling his appeal case — said in court papers from last month that they believe Ibarra is “suffering from congenital deficiency which could render the client incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial.”
The defense attorneys also claimed he “lacks the mental capacity to understand the nature and object and proceedings and council believes that this was in existence at the time of the offense and at the time of the trial.”
This seems like something that should have happened before the trial. The prosecutor in the Ibarra case disagreed with any claims that he wasn't fit to stand trial, but didn't object to the evaluation:
And Ibarra’s trial lawyers didn’t have him evaluated before trial, which might have been a problem when he agreed to only be tried by a judge and not a jury, the appeal lawyers claimed.
Prosecutor Sheila Ross responded in her own court papers, saying there was no evidence during trial that suggested Ibarra wasn’t mentally competent. But Ross didn’t oppose Ibarra getting evaluated and left it up to Haggard to decide.
Haggard’s order said, “The mental competence of [Ibarra] has been called into question, and this court has found it appropriate for an evaluation to be conducted at the public expense.”
At the public expense, of course. The public has been picking up the tab for a lot of crimes committed by illegal aliens in recent years, along with having to pay for all the legal fallout.
See Also: Trump on 'Meet the Press:' 'People Have Been Killed, Maimed, Badly Hurt by Illegal Immigrants'
We should note that, before his assault on Laken Riley, Jose Ibarra had been in the United States illegally for some time. He entered the USA in El Paso, Texas, in 2022, and was picked up and released into the United States due to a lack of detention space. He next appeared in New York City, where he was arrested for riding a scooter with a 5-year-old child, with no helmets or seat belts; he was then placed on a taxpayer-funded flight to Georgia, where he attacked and murdered Laken Riley.
This evaluation, should it prove Ibarra mentally unfit, could potentially overturn his conviction. In that extreme case - let's hope that doesn't happen - he could still be repatriated back to Venezuela.
We will watch this case for further information and provide updates as events warrant.
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