'A sense of justice': Cristhian Bahena Rivera found guilty of first-degree murder in Mollie Tibbetts killing
Prosecutors said Friday that they hoped to bring a "sense of justice" to Mollie Tibet's family after Cristian Bahena Rivera was convicted of first-degree murder nearly three years after the disappearance of a 20-year-old from Brooklyn, Iowa. .
A student at the University of Iowa, Tibet left for a run on Wednesday, July 14, 2016, and never returned. The search for her attracted national attention and ended a month-long search that ended when a Mexican citizen, now 26, led investigators to a rural corn field, where they found her remains meet.
During the two-week trial, jurors heard that investigators identified Bahena Rivera's car in the area where Tibet was last seen, and during a marathon interview with police, he admitted to following Tibet which he found "hot". He told them that he fought with her and then, they said, he blacked out, later realizing that Tibet's blood-soaked body was in his trunk. He said that he took her body to a corn field And covered him with corn stalks. Forensic experts found blood stains in his trunk with Tibetan DNA.
The jury of five women and seven men deliberated for more than seven hours on Thursday and Friday and delivered their verdict shortly after 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Before being taken from the court room in handcuffs, Bahena Rivera showed little response while reading the verdict.
The mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Iowa is life in prison without the possibility of parole. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 15 at 9:30 a.m. at the Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma, Iowa.
Prosecutors Scott Brown and Bart Klaver told reporters that they had spoken with Tibbets' family, who were watching from an overflow room throughout the hall, and Brown said they were "relieved" and "pleased with the verdict". Family members did not speak to reporters after the trial.
However, Bahena Rivera's lawyers promised to appeal.
Since 2018: She is raising. She is a Harry Potter fan. We all know Molly Tibet's face, but her friends and family say she is too much.
Bahena Rivera's lawyers argued that there were other suspects
Throughout the trial, defense attorneys pointed out several other possible suspects to the jury, including Tibbets' boyfriend Dalton Jack. On Wednesday, Bahna Rivera took the stand in her defense and admitted leaving Tibbets' body in the field but refused to kill her. Instead, he said, two armed, masked people came to his house and forced him to take them to a rural road, where one of them killed Tibet, then ordered him to take the corpse to a corn field. He said the men threatened his younger daughter and ex-girlfriend to preserve their silence.
The jury should have had "serious doubts" about the state's case, Attorney Chad Freese said in his closing argument.
"It's not your job to correct the wrong," he told jurors. "It's not your job to retaliate. It's not your job to bring justice to Mollie. She deserves justice, of course, but it's your job to do justice, full stop."
Wednesday's testimony marked the first time prosecutors or the public heard Behena Rivera's version of events. After the verdict, Frase told reporters that the jury was required to provide an alternative explanation for the evidence brought by the state.
"We had a situation where our client made a statement and he had DNA in the trunk, and he carried them to the body - all of this is very horrific evidence," he said. "... We had to do something there, and we thought the jury needed to hear directly from him."
The attorneys acknowledged that the audience could be considered unimaginable due to the bullying and coercion by two strange men of Bahna Rivera, but rejected any suggestion that the story was prepared by the defense team just to defeat the allegations Went.
"If we were going to make something, we would have come up with something better than that," Fraz's co-counsel, Jennifer Fraz, told reporters.
In fact, Chad Freese said, his client has been consistent with the story he first heard.
"From the first day we met Mr. Bahena, the story he put on the stand was exactly the kind of events he told us in August 2018," he said. "He never detached from that version of events, not in a single detail."
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Poweshiek County Attorney, Klaver said Bahena Rivera's story was "completely inconsistent" with her prior statements and other evidence in the case.
"(It) was woven into some of the details of the actual case," he said. "But, again, because it wasn't true, there were pieces that didn't really match what had happened."
In the end, Brown believes, Bahna Rivera's testimony helped the prosecution more than hurt her.
"I mean, he's coming up with something completely new. He had a chance to tell the same story if he was really scared for his child and for Iris (his ex-girlfriend)," the assistant attorney general told several Said looking at the opportunities. Rivera had to tell about his events. "I can't imagine that it helped them much."
Prosecutor: The verdict should remove any doubt from others named by the defense
Defense lawyers drew the attention of the jury members to others investigated during the case, but repeatedly came back to Jack, who took the witness's stand several times. Chad Freese repeatedly questioned him about the difficulties in his relations with Tibet and the discrepancies in his statements to investigators.
Prosecutors responded with testimony from both Jack and his then supervisor that the day Tibet disappeared, Jack was working on a construction project in Dubuque, more than two hours away.
Chad Freese said after the verdict that Jack "certainly gave us reasons to doubt him", but he would not go so far as to accuse him of murder.
"There have been many people who have been in this case whose stories did not adequately investigate for us. And that was a problem for us," he said. "Then can we tell you who did this? No no."
For their part, prosecutors clarified that Bahna Rivera was the only person they considered a suspect in the case. During closing arguments on Thursday, Brown displayed a picture of Tibet smiling to the jury & recalled the state timeline of her final moments: "He crossed paths with her & it ended her life," she said of the defendant. Pointing said. "He attacked her mercilessly. He was stabbed repeatedly. Can you imagine what that was like for him?"
"Five weeks, his body lay in that corn field," he said in his finale, which lasted just over an hour. "And you know who knew about it? A man. A man knew. And here he is. His name is Christian Bahena Rivera."
Brown said those of other perceived interest identified by the defense were "prospects". "But in this case what is the evidence that they are connected? In fact, none," he said.
Brown said on Friday that the decision must be made, of course, to raise any cloud of doubt from any other person in the case, especially Jack.
"Dalton Jack did not commit this murder," he insisted. "He was swamped in coals during the trial. I felt that he actually handled himself very well. He didn't do it. He didn't behave like the person who did it, he was in Brooklyn on July 18, 2018. Wasn't anywhere. ... I'd like people to get it out of their mind. Dalton Jack didn't."
The decision was 'what we were all looking forward to,' says family friends, but appeals to come
Speaking to reporters after the verdict was announced, Frieze promised to appeal after the sentencing of Bahaina Rivera. As a possible basis for a review of the case, he cited Judge Joel Yates' December 2019 ruling that allowed only parts of Bahena Rivera's initial interview with police to be suppressed & the rest to be used as evidence in the trial Was given
The Supreme Court earlier in the case denied a discretionary review of that issue.
"We will file an appeal on behalf of Mr. Bahena, & the Supreme Court will have the opportunity to review & decide those claims," Jennifer Frase said.
In the nearly three years since Bahna Rivera was charged, the trial was moved twice & delayed five times. During & after the search it was removed from Poweshiek County due to heavy public & media attention there, & was eventually brought to Davenport & tried at the Scott County Courthouse.
Bahena Rivera's lawyers sought & received several delays in the case, first to allow more time to review the abundant evidence given by prosecutors from the investigation, & then to police for their ultimately unsuccessful bid. All statements by Bahna Rivera were suppressed. evidence. It got delayed twice due to COVID-19.
For those who participated in the search & grieved with the Tibet family, a different kind of road came to an end on Friday. Angie Thompson, 50, a Brooklyn native currently living in Malcolm, is a close friend of the Tibet family. She said the wait of years was a "visceral pain, looking forward to this day."
"We were all looking forward to the verdict ... but I don't know how to feel," she said. "The verdict does not bring Mollie back, but it does bring justice to Mollie."