The illegal alien who allegedly killed Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts wants his murder trial shifted to another county because of concerns over the local population’s demographic makeup.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, a Mexican national, confessed to the police that he spotted Tibbetts running and pulled off the side of the road before running behind, then alongside her. When she rebuffed him, he said he grew upset and blacked out. Next thing he knew, her body was in the trunk of his car.
Rivera was arrested and charged with first-degree murder on Aug. 21, 2018.
Rivera’s legal team said in a motion filed on March 1 that the trial should be moved out of Poweshiek County because too many white people live there.
Because of the makeup of the population, the attorneys said, it’s likely that “a fair and impartial trial cannot be preserved with a jury selected from that county,” according to court documents obtained by the Des Moines Register.
Practically the entire case was based in the county: it’s where Rivera worked and lived under an alias; where Tibbetts, 20, grew up; where Tibbetts went missing; and where her body was discovered.
According to Rivera’s attorneys, a story published by Des Moines television station KCCI about Rivera’s team seeking a trial delay spawned hundreds of reactions and comments on Facebook, some of them including negative sentiment about Rivera being an illegal immigrant. Some users, according to the attorneys, said the suspect should be killed.
The attorneys did not say what county the commenters were from, and it wasn’t clear what connection the comments had with the trial venue.
Rivera’s team also claimed that potential witnesses they spoke to expressed concern about testifying in support of Rivera if the trial was in Poweshiek County.
“These individuals fear reprisals from locals who hold strong opinions concerning Latinos following [Rivera] being charged,” wrote the attorneys. Most of the witnesses are Latino but most of them are in the country legally, the attorneys claimed.
“Without venue where a minority population is substantially represented, [Rivera] cannot be fairly tried and any jury pool chosen will have to be stricken,” they added.
As of now, the trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 3 at the Poweshiek County District Court after it was reset in February, reported The Montezuma Gazette.
Rivera’s attorneys asked for a continuance in January, saying they hadn’t received all the discovery or evidence from the prosecution, and prosecutors said it was fine with the delay.
Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown said that the material in the case is “voluminous.” He also said the trial should last six to eight days.
Iowa Looks to Punish Businesses Hiring Illegals
Because Rivera was working on a dairy farm under an alias, lawmakers are working on cracking down on businesses that hire illegal aliens.
A measure introduced by 26 state Senate Republicans would take business licenses away from owners who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
The measure would also mandate that employers use the E-Verify system, which helps employers verify a prospective employee’s immigration status, before receiving any tax dollars from the state.
If found to have hired any illegal aliens, business owners would also have to fire all illegal hires and be put on probation for three years. If the business hired an illegal alien again while being on probation then the license would be stripped.
According to the Quad City Times, the measure passed a Senate subcommittee in late February.
“I think it’s only fair to law-abiding citizens, whether employees or employers, to have their elected officials and their governments back them up and take away the unfair competition that comes in from people who are here illegally who work for substandard wages,” said Julian Garrett, a Republican state senator from Indianola who ran the bill.
In a poll taken after Rivera was identified as the murder suspect, 63 percent of respondents blamed employers for hiring illegal aliens versus 16 percent who said they blame the illegal immigrants. Support nationally is high for E-Verify, with 58 percent of respondents in another poll, conducted in 2016, saying the government should “require employers to verify the legal status of their workers.”
Rivera worked and lived at Yarrabee Farms, a dairy farm in Brooklyn, Iowa.
Dane Lang, co-owner of the company, initially claimed that Rivera had been vetted through E-Verify but later said it had not. Company officials said that Rivera used an alias when applying for a job. He went by the name John Budd.
According to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released in 2017, illegal immigrants steal hundreds of thousands of legal identities to gain employment.
