Southeast
Brother of UGA murder suspect charged with green card fraud
An undocumented Venezuelan man living in Athens, Georgia — who is the brother of a suspect accused of killing on the University of Georgia campus —— was charged Friday night with possessing a fraudulent green card, according to officials.
Diego Ibarra, 29, was charged by a federal criminal complaint and is being held in state custody, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Georgia said in a press release. Ibarra could face as many as ten years in prison if convicted.
The federal arrest affidavit for Diego Ibarra shows after he made an asylum claim in El Paso, he was allowed to travel to New York. But in September 2023, Athens-Clarke County Police charged him with drunken driving and driving without a license. A month later, police arrested him again, this time for shoplifting. And in December, he allegedly skipped court and racked up another charge.
Ibarra is the brother of Jose Ibarra, 26, of Venezuela, who is facing state charges for malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call and concealing the death of another in connection with the death of Laken Hope Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who police found dead Thursday on the University of Georgia campus.
LAKEN RILEY CASE: GEORGIA AUTHORITIES IDENTIFY MURDER SUSPECT IN CUSTODY IN NURSING STUDENT’S SLAYING
Diego Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, allegedly handed over a fake green card to police on the hunt for his brother Jose, who they accuse of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley. (Clarke County Sheriffs Office)
Homeland Security Investigations learned of Diego Ibarra’s undocumented presence in the U.S. on Friday when an Athens-Clarke County Police Department officer approached him earlier in the day because he matched the description of his brother as authorities were investigating the UGA murder, according to the criminal complaint and sworn affidavit.
Read the federal arrest affidavit
Laken Hope Riley was found dead on UGA’s campus on Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Instagram)
Diego Ibarra showed the officer a U.S. permanent resident card, otherwise known as a green card, as identification. The card was determined to be fraudulent, and Diego Ibarra was processed for expedited removal, but he claimed a credible fear of returning to his home country of Venezuela. So border authorities let him into the country.
Since entering the country, Diego Ibarra has been arrested three times by Athens law enforcement. In late September, he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and driving without a license. About a month later, he was arrested for shoplifting, and in December he was arrested for failure to appear for a fingerprintable offense.
Jose Ibarra, who was originally taken into custody on Friday by the UGA Police Department in connection with Riley’s death, is now not believed to have had a connection to the victim. (Clarke County Sheriff’s Office)
Melissa Hodges, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Georgia, said she can confirm Diego Ibarra is undocumented but cannot say the same for his brother.
“I can confirm Jose Ibarra is from Venezuela only. Diego is undocumented from Venezuela,” Hodges told Fox News Digital. “I do not have the details on Jose Ibarra.”
Jose Ibarra, who was originally taken into custody on Friday by the UGA Police Department in connection with Riley’s death, is now not believed to have had a connection to the victim.
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA POLICE QUESTIONING ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ IN LAKEN RILEY HOMICIDE
Laken Hope Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who police found dead Thursday on the University of Georgia campus. (Laken Riley/Facebook)
UGA Police Chief Jeffrey L. Clark said during a news briefing Friday evening that the attack was a “crime of opportunity,” adding that Riley was not a student at UGA. Riley had previously attended UGA before entering a nursing program at Augusta’s Athens campus.
Classes and events at both universities were canceled on Friday.
Clark said Jose Ibarra’s immigration status was not immediately known to investigators.
“Right now I don’t know his full status,” he said. “He is not a citizen of the United States.”
Police found Riley near UGA’s Intramural Fields and Lake Herrick with “visible injuries” at around 12:38 p.m. Thursday after they received a call from a concerned friend who said she had gone for a run and did not return.
GEORGIA NURSING STUDENT FOUND DEAD ON UGA CAMPUS IDENTIFIED AS LAKEN RILEY
Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley was found dead near a lake on UGA’s campus on Thursday, February 22, 2024. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)
Riley had visible injuries and police could not locate a pulse, but they began CPR anyway. A sergeant arrived with a defibrillator minutes later and unsuccessfully attempted to revive the victim.
“Based on the injuries and Riley’s physical condition, I suspected that foul play was involved,” the police report reads.
Clark said it appeared as though she had been killed by blunt-force trauma.
Autopsy results remained pending Friday, but authorities said they were investigating her death as a homicide. Clark said it appeared as though she had been killed by blunt-force trauma.
Fox News’ Audrey Conklin and Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Trump seeks more than $6M from Fani Willis’ office in wake of election interference case
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President Donald Trump is asking the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to reimburse him more than $6.2 million in attorney fees and costs in the wake of the recently dismissed 2020 election interference case she brought against him.
The development comes after Willis was permanently sidelined from prosecuting the case against Trump last September. She had lost an appeal after the Georgia Court of Appeals said Willis and her office could not continue to prosecute the case, citing an “appearance of impropriety” stemming from her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. The case was then dismissed in November.
Georgia state legislators last year passed a law that says that if a prosecutor is disqualified from a case because of his or her own improper conduct and the case is then dismissed, anyone charged in that case is entitled to request “all reasonable attorney’s fees and costs incurred” in their defense. The judge overseeing the case then is responsible for reviewing the request and awarding the fees and costs, which are to be paid from the budget of the prosecutor’s office.
“In accordance with Georgia law, President Trump has moved the Court to award reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in his defense of the politically motivated, and now rightfully dismissed, case brought by disqualified DA Fani Willis,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in Georgia, said in a statement.
FANI WILLIS PERMANENTLY REMOVED FROM PROSECUTING TRUMP ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE AFTER LOSING APPEAL
President Donald Trump and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Alex Slitz-Pool/Getty Images)
A motion filed Wednesday said, “President Trump prays that this Court award attorney fees and costs for the defense of President Trump in the amount of $6,261,613,08.”
Willis’ indictment had accused Trump of pressuring officials to overturn the 2020 vote in Georgia, organizing “fake electors” and harassing election workers.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others in August 2023, and Trump surrendered at the Fulton County Jail on Aug. 24.
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Special prosecutor Nathan Wade and Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County (Getty Images)
Last month, when another person charged in the case made a similar filing, Willis’ office filed a motion asking to be heard on the matter of any claims for fees and costs filed in the case, according to The Associated Press.
Willis’ motion raised concerns about the law passed last year that allowed Trump and others to seek to have their expenses paid.
“The statute raises grave separation-of-powers concerns by purporting to impose financial liability on a constitutional officer, twice elected by the citizens of Fulton County, for the lawful exercise of her core duties under the Georgia Constitution,” her motion said.
Donald Trump’s booking photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office after he surrendered on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
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Her motion also added that the law violates due process by “retroactively imposing a novel fee-shifting scheme” that creates a substantial burden for the county’s taxpayers without any recourse.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southeast
After 2 straight losses, Democrat Stacey Abrams sits out 2026 race for Georgia governor
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The third time won’t be the charm for Stacey Abrams, at least in 2026.
The two-time Democratic gubernatorial nominee in battleground Georgia is ruling out another run for governor this year, saying that instead she’ll focus on her work fighting what she warns is the nation’s move toward authoritarianism under President Donald Trump.
“Americans are in pain but they are ready to act, and now is the moment to reconnect to what is at stake and what is possible,” Abrams said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s clear to me that the most effective way I can serve right now is by continuing to do this important work. For that reason, I will not seek elected office in 2026.”
Abrams, a former Democratic Party leader in the Georgia state legislature and a nationally known voting-rights advocate, narrowly lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial election. She lost her 2022 rematch with Kemp by nearly eight points.
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Stacey Abrams, seen here at Georgia State University on Nov. 7, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia, will not run for governor in 2026. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)
Sources confirmed to Fox News Digital last spring that Abrams was mulling a third straight run for governor in the race to succeed the now-term-limited Kemp.
Abrams grabbed plenty of national attention during the 2018 Georgia race, and came close to making history as the nation’s first Black female elected governor. Her refusal to concede to Kemp after losing by a razor-thin margin boosted her among many Democrats while becoming a top GOP political target.
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She launched the Fair Fight political organization following her defeat, helped Biden narrowly carry Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, and also contributed to the sweep by the Democrats in the Jan. 5, 2021 twin Senate runoff elections.
Abrams raised over $110 million in fundraising for her 2022 rematch with Kemp, but was soundly defeated by the Republican incumbent.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, seen speaking with Fox News Digital during his 2022 re-election campaign, is term-limited and cannot run for re-election in 2026. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
In recent years, the political machine Abrams built has faded. The Abrams-founded New Georgia Project folded last year after being fined $300,000 for illegally backing her 2018 campaign.
And while Abrams last year considered a 2026 gubernatorial run, other Democratic candidates jumped into the race.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement during former President Joe Biden’s administration, is widely seen as the front-runner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
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Also running for the Democratic nomination is former Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan, who was elected in 2018 but declined to seek re-election in 2022. The former Republican is now a moderate Democrat. Former state Rep. Ruwa Romman and former Dekalb County CEO Michael Thurmond are also in the race.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who served in then-President Joe Biden’s administration, is running for the 2026 Democratic nomination for governor in Georgia. (Getty Images)
In the race for the Republican nomination, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has the backing of President Donald Trump.
The field also includes Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The Cook Report, a leading non-partisan political handicapper, rates the race a toss-up, while Inside Elections rates it as tilt Republican and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rates it as lean Republican.
Abrams, in her statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said she’ll keep her focus on the fight to protect democracy.
“The antidote to authoritarianism and its harms has always been democracy; and I have long believed that democracy requires active engagement and staunch defenders,” she wrote.”But democracy is experienced by the vast majority through the work of government — when it fails, we are all imperiled.”
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Southeast
Florida man accused of killing woman, dumping body on popular tourist destination: report
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A Florida man is behind bars after allegedly killing a woman and leaving her body on a popular beach the day after Christmas.
Brandon Ward McCray, 28, was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals and Hollywood Police Department on Dec. 30, 2025 and charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, battery and battery by strangulation, according to police records obtained by Fox News Digital.
Authorities responded to a call regarding a body on the sand of Hollywood Beach – located approximately 15 miles from Fort Lauderdale Beach – at around 7 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 26, 2025, according to WPLG. The victim, later identified as 56-year-old Heather Asendorf, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Brandon Ward McCray is charged with sexual battery, kidnapping, battery and battery by strangulation in Broward County, Florida, according to police records obtained by Fox News Digital. (Broward County Sheriff’s Office)
Witnesses later told NBC Miami the body was wrapped in a white blanket and had blood trailing from the remains.
Officials did not release details regarding Asendorf’s cause of death, but previously stated that foul play was suspected.
Additionally, detectives believe McCray and Asendorf knew each other prior to the alleged murder, according to WSVN.
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Authorities reportedly allege Brandon Ward McCray murdered 56-year-old Heather Asendorf after her body was found on Hollywood Beach in Hollywood, Florida on Dec. 26, 2025. (iStock)
“This case remains an active criminal investigation,” Hollywood police said in a news release. “There is no indication of a broader threat to the community.”
McCray was previously charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 2023 after allegedly brandishing a gun at a tow truck driver as his vehicle was being repossessed, according to NBC Miami.
MAN WITH VIOLENT CRIMINAL HISTORY ON PAROLE ALLEGEDLY STABS TEEN TO DEATH: OFFICIALS
Officials reportedly did not release details regarding Heather Asendorf’s cause of death, but previously stated that foul play was suspected. (iStock)
He was taken into custody at his nearby home and booked into the Broward County Main Jail on $770,000 bond, WPLG reported.
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The Hollywood Police Department and McCray’s attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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