Mollie Tibbetts murder: Trial begins for Mexican national charged in killing of Iowa college student

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Judge rejects written testimony from Mollie Tibbetts murder suspect

A judge rules that he will not consider written testimony from the man accused of killing 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the trial for an undocumented immigrant charged with murdering 20-year-old Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018. 

Fairness issues are expected to be a concern in the trial for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a Mexican national who had been working as a farmhand in the rural Poweshiek County area for several years when he allegedly stabbed Tibbetts to death while she was out jogging in July, 2018 and hid her body. 

Hundreds of law enforcement officials were called in to scour the area over the course of five weeks before Rivera allegedly led investigators to her remains found buried beneath leaves in a cornfield on Aug. 21, 2018. Speaking ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, then-President Trump noted the arrest in the case that had made national news and called for immigration reform. 

MOLLIE TIBBETTS' ACCUSED KILLER TO STAND TRIAL SOON IN IOWA 

"You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in, very sadly, from Mexico and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful young woman," Trump said at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia. "Should’ve never happened. Illegally in our country. We’ve had a huge impact, but the laws are so bad. The immigration laws are such a disgrace, we’re getting them changed, but we have to get more Republicans. We have to get ’em."

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, also promised to bring justice to Tibbetts' killer, citing the "broken immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community." 

Nearly three years later, the now 26-year-old Rivera will participate in the trial through a Spanish-speaking interpreter as he faces a jury in a state that Trump carried in the 2020 election. Jury selection will begin at 10 a.m. at an events center in Davenport, Iowa, where lawyers for both sides will work to whittle a 175-person jury pool to 12 jurors and three alternates. The trial is scheduled to last two weeks. Jury selection is expected to take two days. 

The trial, which was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, has been moved to Scott County — about 100 miles east of Brooklyn — after defense lawyers noted local residents had "very strong opinions" about Rivera's guilt and his Mexican nationality and were nearly all White. Scott County's population is diverse by Iowa standards, but still roughly 80% White and 7% Hispanic or Latino.

Tibbetts went for her routine run in July 2018 through Brooklyn, population 1,700, where she ran cross country and excelled in speech during high school. She never made it back to the home where she was dog-sitting for her boyfriend and his brother, who were out of town. Her boyfriend, Dalton Jack, told investigators he last heard from Tibbetts around 10 p.m. on July 18, 2018. Co-workers called Jack the next morning when Tibbetts never showed up for her shift at a daycare in Grinnell, Iowa, KCCI reported. 

Detectives zeroed in on Rivera a month later, after obtaining surveillance video showing a dark Chevy Malibu appearing to circle Tibbetts as she ran, and a deputy later spotted him in town driving that vehicle. A group of investigators that included U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents showed up at the dairy farm where Rivera worked to interview him and search his vehicles.

Rivera cooperated, initially denying involvement in Tibbetts' disappearance. Federal agents put an immigration detainer on him during a lengthy interrogation. Hours later, investigators said he confessed to approaching Tibbetts as she ran, killing her in a panic after she threatened to call police. 

An autopsy found that she died of sharp force injuries after she was stabbed to death, although investigators have not recovered a murder weapon. They said that DNA testing on blood found in the trunk of the vehicle showed it was a match for Tibbetts.

The case has also deepened anxieties about random violence against women, since Tibbetts was brutally attacked while going for a run. 

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Backlash from national coverage of the case ensued. A prominent Republican fundraiser and campaign contractor for GOP politicians began receiving death threats after it became known she was also the partial owner of the farmland where Rivera was employed under an alias and lived rent-free. 

Robocalls allegedly linked to a White supremacist group blanketed Iowa calling for mass deportation. Tibbett’s father, Rob Tibbetts, later wrote an opinion piece published online by The Des Moines Register arguing that while he supports debate on immigration, some politicians and pundits went too far in using his daughter’s death as a "pawn" to promote political agendas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.