Jury finds Christhian Bahena Rivera guilty of first-degree murder of Mollie Tibbetts

Nancy Dillon, New York Daily News
·1 min read

An Iowa jury found Christhian Bahena Rivera guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the brutal stabbing death of Mollie Tibbetts.

Tibbetts was a 20-year-old University of Iowa student and former cross-country runner when she disappeared while jogging near her home in Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18, 2018.

Bahena Rivera, who had pleaded not guilty, led investigators to her body in a shallow grave in a cornfield after his Chevrolet Malibu was captured on surveillance video circling the area where she was last seen alive.

A DNA test of blood detected in the vehicle’s trunk came back an exact match for Tibbetts, the 12-member jury heard during his trial.

The farmhand from Mexico who was in the U.S. without authorization testified in his own defense, claiming two masked men armed with a gun and a knife appeared in his trailer the night Tibbetts went missing and ordered him to drive to the location where she was jogging.

He claimed one of the men disappeared for a moment and then dumped Tibbetts’ body in his trunk.

Bahena Rivera said the men threatened to harm his daughter if he went to police, so he buried Tibbetts and fled.

The jury, which included nine white members and three of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish descent, debated his fate for seven hours before unanimously convicting him Friday.

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