The sentencing has been delayed for the illegal alien convicted of murdering 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in late May as his defense team requests a new trial.
Iowa Judge Joel Yates has delayed the sentencing hearing for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an illegal alien from Mexico, as the defense pleads with the court to order a new trial after two men have been named as having killed Tibbetts by two individuals.
A hearing on whether Bahena Rivera should get a new trial is scheduled for July 27.
As Breitbart News reported, the defense filed a motion to the court stating that two individuals came forward to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation on May 26 after Bahena Rivera took the witness stand and alleged he was kidnapped by two masked men who killed Tibbetts before he dumped her body in the cornfield and drove off, never hearing from the men again.
The individuals, a cellmate and an ex-girlfriend of 21-year-old Gavin Jones, are alleging that Jones admitted to them on separate occasions to having helped murder Tibbetts with an accomplice, 24-year-old Dalton Hansen, after she was kidnapped and sex trafficked.
Jones and Hansen both told the Associated Press that they had nothing to do with Tibbetts murder and do not know how their names came up in the case:
“The cops haven’t talked to me. No one has talked to me. You are the first person that has called me,” said Jones, of Oskaloosa. “I wasn’t involved in anything. I have alibis and everything. I am just waiting for someone to come talk to me.” [Emphasis added]
…
The 24-year-old Hansen, of Sigourney, said allegations that he was involved in Tibbetts’ death are “crazy” and starting to spread online. [Emphasis added]
“I have no clue why my name even got brought up with this,” Hansen said. [Emphasis added]
The two individuals’ allegations do not match Bahena Rivera’s testimony on the witness stand, which he told jurors was the real story of what occurred, that armed men kidnapped him, killed Tibbetts, and effectively forced him to dump her body in a cornfield.
In statements following Bahena Rivera’s conviction, his attorneys told the media their client’s story, told to jurors on the witness stand, had not changed since they first spoke with him.
Bahena Rivera’s attorneys admitted in their motion to the court that the new allegations do not align with their clients’ chain of events. Likewise, the allegations do not explain how Bahena Rivera was able to lead investigators to Tibbetts’ body.
The attorneys wrote to the court:
While perhaps not every bit of the account fits neatly into defendant’s account of the events, enough of the facts fit to certainly question whether the state would have been able to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt had this information been known and presented to a jury.
On May 28, twelve jurors, including three Hispanic Americans and nine white Americans from 19 to 71-years-old, found Bahena Rivera guilty of first-degree murder following a nearly two-week trial and less than eight hours of deliberation.
During the trial, the medical examiner who reviewed Tibbetts’ body told the jury that she was stabbed potentially up to 12 times by her killer. Tibbetts, the medical examiner said, suffered stab wounds to her head, right hand, neck, and torso.
In detailed testimony by the investigator to whom Bahena Rivera confessed murdering Tibbetts, the jury was relayed portions of the transcripts. Bahena Rivera said he saw Tibbetts jogging, chased her down, blacked out, then remembered driving with her body in the trunk of his car before dumping her in a cornfield.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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