“Your Honor, I ask that you please give Jose Ibarra the same thing he gave us when he made the choice to take Laken’s life and destroy ours,” Riley’s mother said in court. “He showed no compassion for Laken when she begged for her life. There is no end to the pain and suffering he has caused her family and friends.”

On Wednesday morning, Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard read a guilty verdict for Ibarra, finding the 26-year-old Venezuelan migrant, who is in the United States illegally, guilty of all charges, including murder and criminal mischief. murder.

Riley’s parents made an emotional plea after the sentencing announcement and prior to the judge’s sentencing of Ibarra. Prosecutors sought life in prison without the possibility of parole. The convicted murderer had waived his right to a jury trial and opted for a judicial trial, leaving Haggard as the sole person responsible for a verdict and conviction.

“He ripped away every beautiful memory we will ever have with her,” Allyson Phillips said through tears. “This horrible person has robbed us of all our hopes and dreams for Laeken.”

Choking back tears, she added, “I ask you to please give this monster life without any chance of parole so he never has the chance to hurt anyone else again.”

John Phillips praised his late stepdaughter as a “shining beacon” and a “beautiful person.” He then related a passage from one of her last diary entries, dated two months before her death, in which she wrote a letter to her future husband.

“To my future husband, I want you to know that I am thinking of you and working every day to become the best woman I can be by working through my current relationships to best prepare myself for ours one day and our children.’ her stepfather said tearfully as he read her diary entry about her vision of her future life. “’I focus on God and what He defines as a faithful, Christian life so that I can best embody those characteristics. I pray that you know that with my complete faith and trust in God, I know that this relationship was built by His hand. I pray that we will continue to glorify the Lord, give Him priority in every aspect of our lives, and that we will also raise our families, our future families, to be godly Christians.”

“’I pray that God is the center of our relationship because it is a gift from Him. I thank Him for you before I even know you, and I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives loving you the best way I know how. I pray that you know and feel the importance of my love and hope to our relationship. Whatever challenges we face, I pray that our trust in God and love for each other overcomes the obstacle. May our relationship last forever. Your future wife, Laken. ”

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John Phillips continued to beg the judge to consider how Ibarra had “tragically and brutally” taken their “beautiful Cloth” from them.

“It is true that none of our lives will ever be the same,” he told the judge. “So today I implore this court to protect the world from this truly evil individual by sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole for any reason, so that he never gets the chance to do this.”