When a Georgia judge convicted Jose Ibarra, Laken Riley’s killer, on 10 counts and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole, politicians and pundits across the country expressed frustration that he was not sentenced to death.

Over a nearly four-day trial, prosecutor Sheila Ross brought 29 witnesses to the stand to prove that Ibarra brutally attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was jogging on the University of Georgia campus by bashing her head with large rocks and possibly strangling her.

But Georgia Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez decided not to pursue the death penalty against Ibarra in May, about three months after Riley’s murder, saying in a May 31 press release that the decision to seek life without the possibility of parole instead of death was “reached after careful deliberation with the senior prosecutor and the support of the victim’s family.”

“Our utmost duty is to ensure that justice is served and that the victim’s family is an integral part of the deliberation process,” Gonzalez said in a statement at the time. “We understand that there will be those outside this office who will disagree with our decision and seek to exploit this case for political gain. However, the integrity of our judicial process and the pursuit of justice must always transcend political considerations.”

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Fox News contributor and former criminal and civil trial attorney Ted Williams, who also worked as a homicide detective in Washington, D.C., called Gonzalez’s decision “absolutely outrageous.”

“This person should burn her bar card,” Williams said. “Each case, and this case, should have been ruled, and a decision on the death penalty should have been made on the merits. This is friggin’ outrageous.”

He added that “capital punishment is left to the discretion of the local prosecutor under Georgia law.”

Jose Ibarra appears at his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

“A prosecutor should make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty on how egregious and violent the murder was,” Williams explained. “Political leanings should never factor into that decision. Sadly, prosecutor Deborah Gonzalez failed Laken Hope Riley in death by not seeking the death penalty against Jose Ibarra. If there was ever a case that called for the death penalty, it was this case.”

“Ibarra violently murdered Laken Riley. He stalked Laken and took a rock and bashed her skull in.”

— Ted Williams

Republican Georgia State Rep. Houston Gaines told Fox News Digital that had the death penalty been on the table, Ibarra may have chosen a plea deal instead of life without parole, and a trial exposing the graphic details of Riley’s murder would not have been necessary.

Deborah Gonzalez, the DA for Georgia’s Western Judicial Circuit, takes part in the inaugural Athens Pride Parade in downtown Athens, Ga., June 12, 2022. (Joshua L. Jones/USA Today Network)

“[I]f there was ever a case to pursue the death penalty, this is one to consider,” Gaines said. “At least leave it on the table … make the defendant plea to life without parole.”

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In 2020, when the George Soros-backed prosecutor — a former state representative — took office as DA, she expressed opposition to the death penalty.

“I do not support the death penalty. It is cruel & in humane.”

— Deborah Gonzalez

“I do not support the death penalty. It is cruel & in humane,” Gonzalez said in a Sept. 23, 2020, post on X. “As DA of #athensga I will not seek it in any prosecution. The eye for an eye argument does not make our community whole. Restorative justice does that.”

Laken Riley’s last moments were caught on a UGA trail camera Feb. 22. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

On her first day in office, Gonzalez’s office outlined some of her new initiatives, which included not seeking the death penalty, in a memo her office sent to the Georgia state legislature at the time. Gaines shared parts of the memo on X in February after Riley’s murder, urging the DA to pursue the death penalty.

In that memo, Gonzalez said she would “take into account collateral consequences to undocumented defendants,” or, in other words, the negative impacts of criminal convictions for illegal immigrants.

“District Attorney Gonzalez is wrong for factoring into her decision not to seek the death penalty ‘collateral consequences to undocumented defendants,’” Williams said. “It is outrageous to believe that any DA sworn to uphold the law looking at the facts of this case would take into consideration how undocumented defendants are to be treated in the criminal justice system. A decision to seek the death penalty should be based solely on the individual merits of a case and not whether a person is undocumented.”

Gonazlez, who lost re-election in 2024, decided not to prosecute the Ibarra case and handed it to special prosecutor Ross, who scored a hasty conviction after the nearly four-day trial.

Gonzalez received criticism from Gov. Brian Kemp and other local politicians for her failure to get a single conviction in a jury trial for a criminal case over the course of her term, WSBT-TV first reported in February.

LAKEN RILEY’S ALLEGED KILLER JOSE IBARRA FLEW FROM ‘GROUND ZERO’ OF MIGRANT CRISIS TO GEORGIA

Houston Gaines has criticized Deborah Gonzalez’s decision not to pursue the death penalty in Jose Ibarra’s criminal case in the murder of Augusta University student Laken Riley. (Gaines/ © Joshua L. Jones/USA Today Network)

“She made the decision before the case even happened,” Gaines said of Gonzalez’s anti-death penalty stance. “When you come into office and you make blanket policy statements, that’s the issue. … Again, you have individuals who come into our community like Jose Ibarra because … we’re a community that has welcomed individuals who are in this country illegally and who commit serious crimes. And they know that violent criminals are more likely to get off easy in Athens than in other places.”

Gaines also noted that Gonzalez “only has a couple of lawyers left in the office because they’ve had 35 resignations for 17 positions over the last couple of years.”

“They’ve had an over 200% turnover,” the state representative said. “So, she really has no lawyers left in her office, and they weren’t able to handle this case.”

Gonzalez’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross presents her closing arguments before Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Ibarra illegally crossed into the United States through El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released into the U.S. via parole, ICE and DHS sources previously told Fox News. He briefly lived in New York City, where he was arrested in 2023 for endangering a child. He and his 29-year-old brother, Diego Ibarra, were also previously cited for shoplifting in Athens. 

Jose, Diego and their younger brother, Agenis, lived in an apartment building less than a half mile from the on-campus park where Riley was running the morning of Feb. 22. Their apartment complex backed up to a shortcut that leads to running trails along UGA’s campus where Riley was found dead in a wooded area, partially naked and covered in leaves, that afternoon. She died of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation medical examiner.

Diego, who worked briefly at a UGA cafeteria before his arrest in February, had ties to a known Venezuelan gang in the U.S., Tren de Aragua, according to federal court documents.

Federal officials declined to provide more information to Fox News Digital about a “humanitarian flight” that Laken Riley’s convicted killer, Jose Ibarra, was granted from New York City to Atlanta in September 2023.

In a Georgia courtroom on Monday, during Ibarra’s trial, prosecutors displayed a photo of a Delta Air Lines ticket from New York to Atlanta, dated Sept. 28, 2023, for Ibarra, the Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of attacking and killing Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, on the University of Georgia campus in Athens in February.

FBI Special Agent Jamie Hipkiss said a photo of the boarding pass was pulled from a WhatsApp account associated with Ibarra.

Ibarra’s former roommate, Rosbeli Flores-Bello, testified on Monday that she and Ibarra — both Venezuelan nationals who connected in Queens, New York, in 2023 after meeting through a mother-in-law — went to the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan in September of that year to request a “humanitarian flight” to Atlanta. Ibarra’s brother, Diego, promised they would find work in Athens, Georgia. 

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The Roosevelt, which is located not far from New York’s iconic Grand Central Station, was transformed into an immigration processing hub or “reticketing center” in May 2023. The New York City official government website defines “reticketing” as “a service provided to individuals who are new arrivals to the United States and are seeking asylum.”

President-elect Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan has vowed to put an end to this practice. Homan served in Trump’s first administration as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office told Fox News Digital that “[w]hat happened to Laken Riley is a gut-wrenching tragedy, and we are hopeful her suspected killer is held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

“Cities should never have had to carry the cost and burden of this national humanitarian crisis.”

— Mayor Eric Adams’ office

“Mayor Adams has been abundantly clear that we need to fix our broken immigration system. Cities should never have had to carry the cost and burden of this national humanitarian crisis,” press secretary Kayla Mamelak Altus said in a statement. 

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Asylum seekers line up in front of the historic Roosevelt Hotel, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families in New York City. (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

“More than 223,000 migrants have come through New York City’s intake system since the spring of 2022, and our reticketing system is one tool in our very limited toolbox as a city that helps migrants take the next step out of our shelter system,” Altus continued. “We continue to call on Democrats and Republicans to finally come together to pass meaningful immigration reform for the first time in four decades.”

Reticketing centers, the New York City website says, help “arrange further travel outside of NYC from” the Roosevelt Hotel, among other locations.

Migrants reach for food being handed out while being recorded by a woman outside the Roosevelt Hotel, where dozens of recently arrived migrants have been camping out as they try to secure temporary housing on Aug. 2, 2023 in New York City. (Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

“If you have just arrived in NYC and need reticketing services, you should first visit the Arrival Center at the Roosevelt Hotel, located at 45 East 45th Street in Manhattan,” the website states. “At the Arrival Center, you will undergo an intake process in your preferred language, during which you can express your desire to be reticketed. Eligibility will be confirmed by staff.”

The FBI told Fox News Digital that the agency “has nothing further to provide beyond the testimony given in court.” 

A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement said “the FBI is involved in this,” referring to the plane ticket, and referred Fox News Digital to the Bureau. “We don’t have any information,” the spokesperson said.

The White House did not respond to questions about Ibarra’s conviction generally or his humanitarian flight. Delta Air Lines did not provide any further information about the flight. 

LAKEN RILEY’S ALLEGED KILLER JOSE IBARRA FLEW FROM ‘GROUND ZERO’ OF MIGRANT CRISIS TO GEORGIA

Jose Ibarra pays attention to a witness during his trial at the Athens-Clarke County Superior Court on Monday, Nov. 18, 2024 in Athens, Georgia. (Miguel Martinez/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Jose Ibarra is charged with 10 counts in connection with Riley’s February murder.

The murder suspect entered the United States through El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was freed on border parole. He initially lived in New York City, where he was arrested for endangering a child prior to his move to Athens.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED IN LAKEN RILEY MURDER ‘FAST-TRACKING’ TO LIFE IN PRISON: ATTORNEY

From left to right, Connolly Huth, roommate of Laken Riley, Lauren Phillips, sister of Laken Riley, and Sofia Magana, roommate of Laken Riley, react as Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard announces the verdict during the trial of Jose Ibarra at Athens-Clarke County Superior Court, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024 in Athens, Georgia. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)

Ibarra, 26; and his brothers, Diego Ibarra, 29; and Argenis Ibarra, 24, lived together in an apartment complex in Athens, Georgia, less than half a mile from the scene where Riley was found dead. All three men were questioned and taken into custody after Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered while she was jogging around the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22.

Diego Ibarra — who briefly worked on UGA’s campus in a dining hall — is charged with green card fraud after displaying a fake ID with two different birth dates to police, and Argenis is being held on an immigration detainer.

Court documents released Wednesday revealed that Diego Ibarra has ties to the violent Venezuela-based organized crime gang Tren de Aragua.

Federal authorities say that the gang, also known as TdA, has become known for its violent turf wars as it has expanded into other countries in South and Central America. The gang has established itself in multiple states, according to the Justice Department.

A Mississippi teacher is out of a job after inadvertently feeding dog treats to students during a class celebration, according to a report by WTVA, a local ABC affiliate.

The now-former Calhoun City High School employee, whose name was not released by the Calhoun County School District, allegedly mistook the treats for beef jerky.

At least eight children consumed at least one bite of the treats on Wednesday, according to Dr. Lisa Langford, the district superintendent.

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Langford also lauded the school nurse for her swift response to the situation, which included a Poison Control call, according to WTVA. The district also alerted the affected children’s parents of the situation.

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The incident reportedly transpired during what was intended as a birthday celebration for a few of the students, the local outlet continued.

WTVA noted that at least one child was taken to the doctor with a stomachache.