The mother of murdered Augusta University student Laken Riley got emotional Friday at a hearing where illegal immigrant suspect Jose Ibarra learned his proposed trial date of Nov. 18. 

Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard set the proposed trial date after Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally from Venezuela, pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in her death during his arraignment in late May. Haggard is anticipating jury selection to start on Nov. 13 and hopes to have the trial concluded by Thanksgiving. 

Laken Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, and stepfather, John Phillips were in court Friday for the status hearing. Allyson Phillips was sniffling as she entered the courtroom. Special prosecutor Sheila Ross approached her and placed her hand on Allyson’s knee to comfort her and they briefly spoke before the hearing started.  

Phillips later left the courtroom crying while holding a box of tissues. 

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT IN LAKEN RILEY’S MURDER INDICTED 

Ibarra is charged with malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence, and spying. Prosecutors will seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was attacked on Feb. 22 while she was out for a run along dirt trails on the University of Georgia campus in Athens.  

Judge Haggard will likely schedule a hearing to discuss motions sometime in September or early October. Public defender Kaitlyn Beck said the defense also received a batch of evidence two weeks ago and another batch of evidence this morning. 

Ibarra is accused of causing Riley’s death by inflicting blunt-force trauma to her head and “asphyxiating her in a manner unknown to jurors,” an indictment states.  

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Laken Riley poses for a photo posted to Facebook. Riley, a nursing student at the University of Georgia, was found dead near a lake on campus on Feb. 22, 2024. (Allyson Phillips/Facebook)

The suspect is also accused of going to an apartment on UGA’s “University Village Housing Building ‘S,’” where he “peeped through” a window and “spied upon” a university staff member on the same day he allegedly killed Riley, the indictment alleges. 

Ibarra lived in an apartment building that sits on the edge of the on-campus park where Riley was running, allegedly murdered the aspiring nurse in what UGA Police Chief Jeffrey Clark described as a “crime of opportunity.”  

Allyson Phillips, Laken Riley’s mother, center, gets emotional while sitting beside Riley’s stepdad John Phillips inside the Athens-Clarke County Superior Courthouse on Friday, May 31, 2024, where Jose Ibarra pleaded not guilty to 10 counts in Riley’s death.  (Pool)

The scenic loop Riley ran that morning is easily accessible from behind Ibarra’s apartment complex. It is a five-minute walk from Ibarra’s door to the approximate scene where Riley was found dead. 

Fox News’ Chelsea Torres and Bill Melugin contributed to this report. 

Several of Vice President Kamala Harris’ top candidates for vice president have cleared their schedules ahead of her highly anticipated running mate announcement.

Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – the three candidates on Harris’ shortlist for vice president, all made scheduling changes ahead of the weekend.

Shapiro was originally scheduled to make three appearances at weekend fundraising events in the Hamptons in New York, but his spokesperson said his schedule has since changed.

“The governor’s trip was planned several weeks ago and included several fundraisers for his own campaign committee,” Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, told The New York Times. “His schedule has changed, and he is no longer traveling to the Hamptons this weekend.”

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Beshear will also be missing two events over the weekend: a Jackson Purchase Distillery visit on Friday and the state’s annual Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday.

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Kentucky governor’s office asking the reasoning behind not attending the events but did not receive a response.

Gov. Andy Beshear cleared some time from his schedule this weekend. (Timothy D. Easley, File)

Additionally, Buttigieg shortened an event on Friday at Ivy Tech Community College Kokomo, according to Politico.

Harris will hold her first public appearance with her running mate on Tuesday in Philadelphia to kick off a four-day, battleground state tour.

A Florida inmate who faked a fall injury in an effort to escape was dragged by a law enforcement K-9 kicking and screaming from the thick underbrush where he was hiding, authorities said Sunday. 

Anthony Romine, 29, was found Saturday in a wooded area by a gas station in Flagler County after being tracked by a Flagler County Sheriff’s K-9 team. 

He was hiding underneath some foliage and underbrush, the sheriff’s office said. 

His capture came seven hours after his escape. Video footage of the arrest shows a K-9 dragging Rommie, who was screaming in pain. 

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The footage appears to show the dog dragging Romine by his arm.

“Get him please!” he’s heard pleading to the deputies, who kept warning Romine to “stop biting my dog!.”

“Alright, I’ll go,” Romine says. 

At one point, he appears to be crying when a deputy asks: “You thought you were going to get away?” During his brief escape, authorities received multiple calls on possible sightings of Romine, the sheriff’s office said. 

Romine was initially arrested on July 3 on a felony warrant for petty theft, violation of his pre-trial release and counterfeiting. He was in jail when he claimed he fell before being taken to the hospital for treatment, the sheriff’s office said. 

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Investigators later determined he faked his injury in an effort to escape and return to Ohio, where he is originally from, authorities said. 

“We worked until we got him. I commend our team for staying on his trail, and the community for ‘seeing something, saying something’ until this dirtbag was captured,” said Flager County Sheriff Rick Staly. “All he accomplished was to add additional arrests to his list of crimes and got bitten by our K-9, who gets a special treat for taking ‘a bite out of crime’ when he tried to flee again. Fortunately, no one was hurt except this dirtbag who was crying after he was caught by our K-9.” 

Anthony Romine, 29, seen after his capture and before his escape on security video.  (Flagler County Sheriff’s Office)

After his capture, felony escape was added to the list of charges against Romine, as well as battery on a law enforcement officer without violence. 

Staly said an investigation will be opened to determine how the deputy assigned to Romine became distracted, which led to the escape.