The man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley was found guilty of murder Wednesday in a case that became a flashpoint in the immigration debate ahead of the presidential election earlier this year.

Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was convicted on three counts of murder and murder with intent, kidnapping with bodily harm, aggravated assault with intent to rape and ‘voyeur’. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The decision was handed down on the fourth day by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard of one test bench. Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial and did not testify in his own defense. As he pronounced the sentence, sobs could be heard in the courtroom.

Prosecutors said Ibarra accosted Riley while she was out running the morning of Feb. 22. She was found dead in a wooded area near the University of Georgia campus in Athens after her roommates called police when she did not return home.

Riley’s killing focused national attention on the immigration debate after officials announced that Ibarra is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the United States illegally in 2022. Donald Trump and other Republicans met with Riley’s parents before a campaign rally in March and have used the case to call for stricter border policies.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Ibarra killed Riley after she resisted his attempt to rape her. Prosecutors pointed to DNA and other evidence that they said linked Ibarra to Riley on the day of her murder.

In closing arguments Wednesday, prosecutor Sheila Ross told the judge that Riley “has himself given you all the evidence you need to find this man guilty of every single charge in this indictment.”

Ross said Riley fought her attacker and “it is a direct result of that fight that gives you all the physical evidence you need to convict.”

Defense attorneys said the evidence, while showing that Riley was killed, did not link Ibarra to the killing beyond a reasonable doubt. Instead, they said Ibarra’s brother, Diego Ibarra, could have killed the nursing student.

Kaitlyn Beck said in her closing argument that two alternative theories could not be completely ruled out: that Diego was responsible for Riley’s murder or that “Jose was an accomplice after the fact of the murder.”

She tried to undermine the prosecution’s evidence by suggesting that the DNA was contaminated because Jose Ibarra and Diego Ibarra shared clothes and a bed.