Hunter
08/03/21
A Poweshiek County judge has denied the request for a new trial in the slaying of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018.
Judge Joel Yates issued his ruling Monday, after a lengthy hearing last week arguing that testimony indicating another person had murdered Tibbetts warranted a new trial for Christian Bahena Rivera.
Two new witnesses claimed that Gavin Jones had confessed to killing the woman. They came forward during the trial, and prosecutors offered to delay the trial to investigate. In Judge Yates’ ruling, he wrote that the defense chose not to pause the trial because it would have contradicted Bahena Rivera’s testimony.
Details on how Tibbetts was killed varied between the different accounts. The new testimony alleged that she was murdered at a home used for sex trafficking, while investigators believe that she died at the hand of Bahena Rivera after she rejected his advances.
Bahena Rivera was to be sentenced July 15th before the motion to hold a new trial was presented. With that motion denied, he is to be sentenced on August 30th. Bahena Rivera faces a mandatory sentence of life without parole.