ATHENS, Ga. () – A major legal win for the man convicted of killing a Georgia nursing student.

A judge has ruled that Jose Ibarra should be mentally evaluated.

Ibarra was convicted of killing Laken Riley, an AU student at the College of Nursing campus in Athens, in 2024.

Laken was out for a run on on campus the morning of February 22nd. Officers began searching for her after receiving a call that had not returned.

Laken Riley

She was discovered in the wooded area behind Lake Herrick. Investigators report she was unconscious, not breathing, and bore visible injuries. Emergency responders confirmed her death.

Later that evening, a suspect named Jose Antonio Ibarra, then 26 years old, was arrested and charged with Laken’s death. He received a life sentence without the possibility of parole in November 2024.

The judge’s ruling follows claims from the lawyers managing his appeal that Ibarra had a congenital deficiency and was not competent to stand trial the previous year.

Prosecutes say there was no evidence during the trial that Ibarra, who was convicted of life without parole, was mentally incompetent.