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MAY 28, 2021
Mollie Tibbetts: Jury deliberations resume in trial of farm worker accused of killing Univ. of Iowa student - CNN
An Iowa jury resumed deliberations Friday in the murder trial of a farm worker accused of abducting and fatally stabbing 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts in July 2018.
[...]
But in testimony Wednesday, Bahena Rivera -- speaking through an interpreter -- told a very different story. He said two masked mystery men kidnapped him, forced him to participate in their plot to kill Tibbetts, threatened his family and told him to remain silent.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Scott Brown dismissed that testimony and said it did not fit with the evidence.
"There weren't two other guys. That's a figment of his imagination," Brown told jurors. "All of the credible evidence in this case points at him."
[...]
Defense attorney Chad Frese said the prosecution had no murder weapon, no crime scene, no eyewitnesses, no confession, no motive and no scientific evidence to prove his client's guilt. He said Bahena Rivera's original statements to investigators were made under duress during an 11-hour interrogation.
[...]
The prosecution based its case on three key aspects: surveillance video of Bahena Rivera's vehicle near Tibbetts, his admissions to investigators in August 2018, and her DNA found in his trunk.
"When you put this evidence together, there can be no other conclusion than that the defendant killed Mollie Tibbetts," Poweshiek County Attorney Bart Klaver said at the start of the trial.
[...]
He testified he was taking a shower when two unknown, masked men broke into his trailer and demanded his help. One had a knife and the other had a gun, he said.
He testified that they forced themselves into his black Chevy Malibu and told him to drive toward town. That was when he said they came across a young woman he now knows to be Tibbetts.
Bahena Rivera testified that he was told to stop, while the man with the knife exited the car. He said both men then got out of the vehicle and he heard them opening and closing the trunk. When the men left, he said he found Tibbetts' body in the trunk of the car. He said he took her body out of the trunk, placed her in a corn field and covered her body with corn stalks.
Bahena Rivera said he didn't know why the men sought his help. He testified that he falsely confessed to police because he feared the men would harm his daughter and ex-girlfriend and because he thought telling investigators what they wanted to hear would help him.
Mollie Tibbetts: Jury deliberations resume in trial of farm worker accused of killing Univ. of Iowa student - CNN
An Iowa jury resumed deliberations Friday in the murder trial of a farm worker accused of abducting and fatally stabbing 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts in July 2018.
[...]
But in testimony Wednesday, Bahena Rivera -- speaking through an interpreter -- told a very different story. He said two masked mystery men kidnapped him, forced him to participate in their plot to kill Tibbetts, threatened his family and told him to remain silent.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Scott Brown dismissed that testimony and said it did not fit with the evidence.
"There weren't two other guys. That's a figment of his imagination," Brown told jurors. "All of the credible evidence in this case points at him."
[...]
Defense attorney Chad Frese said the prosecution had no murder weapon, no crime scene, no eyewitnesses, no confession, no motive and no scientific evidence to prove his client's guilt. He said Bahena Rivera's original statements to investigators were made under duress during an 11-hour interrogation.
[...]
The prosecution based its case on three key aspects: surveillance video of Bahena Rivera's vehicle near Tibbetts, his admissions to investigators in August 2018, and her DNA found in his trunk.
"When you put this evidence together, there can be no other conclusion than that the defendant killed Mollie Tibbetts," Poweshiek County Attorney Bart Klaver said at the start of the trial.
[...]
He testified he was taking a shower when two unknown, masked men broke into his trailer and demanded his help. One had a knife and the other had a gun, he said.
He testified that they forced themselves into his black Chevy Malibu and told him to drive toward town. That was when he said they came across a young woman he now knows to be Tibbetts.
Bahena Rivera testified that he was told to stop, while the man with the knife exited the car. He said both men then got out of the vehicle and he heard them opening and closing the trunk. When the men left, he said he found Tibbetts' body in the trunk of the car. He said he took her body out of the trunk, placed her in a corn field and covered her body with corn stalks.
Bahena Rivera said he didn't know why the men sought his help. He testified that he falsely confessed to police because he feared the men would harm his daughter and ex-girlfriend and because he thought telling investigators what they wanted to hear would help him.
