Jury selection begins for man charged in Iowa college student’s death

The murder trial of a Mexican farmworker accused of fatally stabbing 20-12 months-old College of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, who was attacked whilst out for an evening jog in 2018, commenced on Monday with jury range.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 26, is charged with 1st-degree murder in the circumstance that garnered national focus and prompted previous President Donald Trump to make Bahena Rivera, an undocumented employee, an instance of what he identified as a damaged U.S. immigration method.

Jury assortment in the scenario is expected to acquire two days. Opening arguments are scheduled to get started Wednesday at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport, Iowa.

Bahena Rivera has pleaded not guilty.

A possible jury pool of additional than 170 people today will be pared down to 12 jurors and 3 alternates.

Getting a honest and impartial panel to hear the circumstance will be the 1st hurdle prosecutors and protection lawyers encounter.

Nine of the to start with 12 would-be jurors questioned on Monday mentioned they have some familiarity with the case, and five claimed they experienced already fashioned an belief, the Des Moines Sign-up newspaper reported.

The trial was moved to Scott County from Poweshiek County, exactly where the slaying happened, after Bahena Rivera’s attorney asked for a change of location because of to pretrial publicity. Prosecutors agreed with the move, producing in a movement that a “good and impartial jury cannot moderately be selected in Poweshiek County.”

Prosecutor Scott Brown warned potential jurors on Monday that some of the proof expected to be offered will be hard to belly.

“We’re likely to chat about the violent demise of a youthful female, Mollie Tibbetts,” Brown said. “It’s not likely to be enjoyable.”

Tibbetts, a sophomore at the College of Iowa finding out psychology, disappeared on July 18, 2018, while out for an evening jog in the rural farming town of Brooklyn, a close-knit local community of about 1,500 inhabitants 68 miles east of Des Moines.

A substantial search involving hundreds of legislation enforcement officers was introduced and somewhere around $400,000 was raised as a reward for info main to Tibbetts’ secure return. Superstars with ties to Iowa, such as NBA player Harrison Barnes of the Sacramento Kings and actor Tom Arnold, took to social media to comment on the scenario.

A significant break in the scenario came when law enforcement uncovered protection digicam footage of Tibbetts out jogging and seen she was being adopted by a Chevrolet Malibu that was linked to Bahena Rivera, who worked at a close by dairy.

When investigators interviewed Bahena Rivera, he allegedly informed authorities that he noticed Tibbetts running, bought out of his automobile and ran alongside of her, according to an arrest affidavit.

Bahena Rivera claimed Tibbetts grabbed her cellular phone and said, “I am gonna contact the law enforcement,” according to the affidavit.

Bahena Rivera allegedly told authorities he bought angry, killed Tibbetts in a worry and “blocked” his “memory,” in accordance to the affidavit. Authorities say he informed investigators he didn’t keep in mind everything about the incident until eventually he bought back in his motor vehicle, drove to an intersection, recognized Tibbetts’ earpiece from her headphones in his lap and realized he experienced put her body in his trunk, in accordance to the affidavit.

Rivera reportedly said he then drove to a cornfield and dumped Tibbetts’ entire body, the affidavit reads. Police mentioned that on Aug. 21, 2018, Bahena Rivera led investigators to the cornfield, the place Tibbetts’ overall body was found included in leaves.

Following an autopsy, the Iowa State Clinical Examiner ruled Tibbetts’ death a “murder ensuing from several sharp power injuries.”

ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.