Iowa killer gets life in student’s slaying

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A man was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday in the abduction and killing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, three years after she disappeared while out for an evening run.

Judge Joel Yates’ sentence for Cristhian Bahena Rivera was mandatory for a first-degree murder conviction in Iowa. The 27-year-old former farmhand, who testified that he came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico as a teenager, has been jailed since his arrest in August 2018.

Yates rejected defense claims that others were responsible for the crime.

Tibbetts vanished on a rural road outside her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, population 1,700, while out for a run on July 18, 2018. Investigators focused on Bahena Rivera, who worked under an alias at a nearby dairy farm, after finding a homeowner’s surveillance video that appeared to show his Chevy Malibu repeatedly driving past Tibbetts while she ran.

After a lengthy interrogation, Bahena Rivera led authorities to a cornfield where he had buried Tibbetts’ body.

Bahena Rivera told investigators that he approached Tibbetts because he found her attractive, and that he fought her after she threatened to call the police. He said he then blacked out and came to as he was driving with her body in his trunk.

Bahena Rivera’s lawyers argued that his confession was false and coerced. At trial in May, Bahena Rivera testified that two masked men kidnapped him at gunpoint and made him drive while they attacked Tibbetts.

The defense plans to appeal.