AP/Lang
12/10/20
The trial of a man charged in the killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts has again been delayed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
26-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera was supposed to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge beginning Jan. 25. But the Iowa Supreme Court in November ordered that all trials in the state be put on hold until Feb. 1 as virus cases have soared. On Wednesday, court officials rescheduled Rivera’s trial to May 17th. A pretrial conference is set for April 15th.
The trial, which was originally scheduled for September of 2019, has been delayed multiple times.
Investigators say Rivera stalked Tibbetts while she was out for a run in July 2018 in Brooklyn, Iowa, and stabbed her to death. After a massive police and volunteer effort to find Tibbetts, authorities say, Bahena Rivera led them to her body.