Month: February 2024

Federal officials revealed new details on Sunday regarding the suspect charged with the death of an Augusta University College of Nursing student on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (‘ICE’) confirmed that the suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, of Athens, is a Venezuelan migrant and not a United States citizen. Ibarra was charged in the murder of Augusta University junior Laken Hope Riley, 22, who was found dead on Thursday near a lake on UGA’s campus after jogging nearby.

Athens-Clarke County jail records show that Ibarra is charged with felony murder, false imprisonment, kidnapping and concealing the death of another, and was denied bond Saturday morning. Authorities say there is no evidence Ibarra previously knew the victim and was not a student at UGA  According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia, the suspect’s brother, Diego Ibarra, 29, is in custody on federal charges of possessing a fraudulent green card and faces up to a decade in prison. Both brothers are undocumented.

According to a statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ibarra was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection on Sept. 8, 2022 after entering the United States illegally near El Paso. ICE noted that “he [Ibarra] was paroled and released for further processing.” New York City police also arrested Ibarra last September and charged “with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation,” according to ICE, with the agency adding that NYPD released him “before a detainer could be issued.”

Ibarra’s immigration status became a hot topic amongst politicians who are fighting to tighten border security. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp requested confirmation on Saturday of the suspect’s immigration status as well as any information available regarding the asylum claims and release of the suspect’s brother, posting on X: “Laken Riley’s tragic death struck the hearts of Georgians everywhere and has sparked national outrage. Joe Biden’s failed policies have turned every state into a border state, and I’m demanding information from him so we can protect our people when the federal government won’t!  While media reports surrounding this case have relied on sources and leaks from your own federal agencies, the answers to these basic questions must be provided publicly as soon as possible.”

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Police in Kentucky say that a suspect has been arrested in connection to the death of a student who was found dead in his dorm room over the weekend at Campbellsville University. The victim, 18-year-old Josiah Kilman, was discovered unresponsive in his dorm room around 1 a.m. local time Saturday morning. According to a press release from the university, Kilman was transported to Taylor Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Kilman’s cause of death has not been determined, and his body was transferred to the Kentucky Office of the Medical Examiner in Louisville for an autopsy.

According to an update from the Campbellsville Police Department posted to Facebook, authorities were dispatched after receiving a call for a “suspicious male located inside a barn” on the Green County and Taylor County line. The Green County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police announced on Saturday evening that 21-year-old Charles Escalera was arrested at approximately 5:15 p.m. in connection with Kilman’s death; police said Escalera was taken into custody without incident.  According to online records, Escalera is facing murder and burglary charges and is being held in the Taylor County Detention Center.

Campbellsville is a private Christian university that’s about 84 miles southeast of Louisville and approximately 83 miles southwest of Lexington. Dr. Joseph Hopkins, Campbellsville University president, said in a statement: “Campbellsville University is grieving the loss of one of our family. We have lost a student and our hearts are broken. During this devastating time, the continued safety of our students and the residents of our community are our primary concern. With consultation from local law enforcement, we will continue to implement every measure necessary to protect and support students and our community.”

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A federal judge said that ‘MyPillow’ chief executive Mike Lindell must pay $5 million to a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Lindell, who says he plans to appeal, pointed out that the breach-of-contract lawsuit was against one of his companies, Lindell Management LLC, and not against him personally.

Lindell launched his “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” as part of a “Cyber Symposium” he hosted in South Dakota in 2021. Lindell offered a $5 million reward through Lindell Management for anyone who could prove that “packet captures” and other data he released there were not valid data “from the November 2020 election.” Software engineer Robert Zeidman entered the challenge with a 15-page report that concluded the data from Lindell did not “contain packet data of any kind and do not contain any information related to the November 2020 election.” A panel of contest judges, including Lindell’s attorney, declined to declare Zeidman a winner.

Last April, a panel of three arbitrators unanimously ordered Lindell to pay Zeidman $5 million, concluding that he had satisfied the contest rules. In the new ruling, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim expressed concern about how the panel interpreted what he called a “poorly written contract,” but said courts have only limited authority to overrule arbitration awards and ordered Lindell to pay up with interest within 30 days.

Lindell has conceded that he doesn’t have the money to pay the money awarded Zeidman: “We’re not able to pay — I can’t borrow money to pay these attorneys. MyPillow can’t pay because of what happened. I have $10,000 to my name.”  Lindell has previously said that MyPillow had to work to stay afloat after stores like Walmart and Bed Bath & Beyond “canceled” his product.

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President Joe Biden blasted the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision on in vitro fertilization which ruled that frozen embryos are people. The state court’s decision prompted the University of Alabama at Birmingham pause IVF treatments.

Biden said that the Alabama high court’s decision is a “direct result” of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and also casted blame on former President Donald Trump with his appointments of conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a statement Thursday afternoon, Biden condemned the Alabama high court’s ruling: “Today, in 2024 in America, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, while doctors fear prosecution for providing an abortion. And now, a court in Alabama put access to some fertility treatments at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant. The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable.”

Biden’s statement came a day after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, which marked the first time a court has ever given rights and protections so early after conception, but did not ban in vitro fertilization (IVF) and is limited to Alabama. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created through IVF are children under state law, prompting legal concerns among doctors and patients over unused embryos that get discarded in the process. As a result of the ruling, The University of Alabama at Birmingham announced that it would stop IVF treatments, citing possible legal repercussions as a result of the decision: “we are saddened that this will impact our patients’ attempt to have a baby through IVF, but we must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care for IVF treatments.”

Biden said he and Vice President Kamala Harris are committed to fighting for reproductive rights and “won’t stop until we restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state.” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a Thursday morning statement: “What is happening in Alabama right now is only possible because Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade. Across the nation, MAGA Republicans are inserting themselves into the most personal decisions a family can make, from contraception to IVF. With their latest attack on reproductive freedom, these so-called pro-life Republicans are preventing loving couples from growing their families. If Donald Trump is elected, there is no question that he will impose his extreme anti-freedom agenda on the entire country.”

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