Farm worker imprisoned for murdering Mollie Tibbetts

A farm worker is facing a life sentence in prison without the possibility of parole for the murdering of Mollie Tibbetts. The farmworker Christian Bahena Rivera has been accused guilty for her murder in May. This student from the University of Iowa disappeared after going out for a run near her residence.

This case is causing inflamed tensions over illegal immigration as Bahena Rivera was a Mexican Migrant. Shortly after the arrest, President Donald Trump blamed the laws of US immigration for the death of Ms. Tibbetts. It has prompted the family of the students to plead with politicians not to use her death for their causes.

These papers also triggered a nationwide discussion about the dangers that women face while running.

While sentencing Rivera, Judge Joel Yates told him, “you and you alone forever changed the lives of those who loved Mollie Tibbetts”.

The judge delayed the sentencing to allow the defense the investigation of two claims. It made the jury find him guilty. It also suggested that there may have been some other ways that are responsible for this killing. But he concluded the new information as unreliable and offered no reason to overturn this verdict.

Defense lawyers are planning to appeal. Prosecutors said that this verdict has relieved and pleased the family of Ms. Tibbetts.

Police arrested Rivera a month after the student went missing. CCTV showed that the car of this farm worker repeatedly passed her as she was running on a road near her hometown in Brooklyn, Iowa. Investigators found her DNA on the car later. He told police that he had approached her as he found her attractive.

As he regained her consciousness, he found her bleeding in the boot of his vehicle, and he later buried her in a cornfield. During the trial, Rivera changed his story saying that two men kidnapped him and forced him to kill her. 12 members of the Jury have found him guilty.

Credits: BBC