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Bahenas motion "greatly downplays the discrepancies between his testimony at trial and the account that (new witness Arne Maki) reports he was told by Jones," Yates wrote. "For example, the specific details about how Mollie Tibbetts was murdered are vastly different." "Had both versions of events been presented at trial, the jury would have had to make a credibility determination not between the State’s witnesses and those of the defense, which is a typical scenario, but between the Defendan...

View Comments The judge overseeing the case against Cristhian Bahena Rivera voiced skepticism repeatedly Thursday as the former farmhands defense attorneys tried to prove there are grounds to grant him a new trial.  Bahena was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the 2018 abduction and stabbing of Mollie Tibbetts. In the week before he was scheduled to be sentenced, his attorneys filed motions to delay that hearing and order a new trial, arguing that new evidence had emerged pointing to...

Cristhian Bahena Rivera deserves a new trial in the 2018 killing of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts included testimony from law enforcement agents who were in some instances loathe to the fact that the defense was calling their assessments into question. Bahena Rivera’s attorneys, Chad Frese and Jennifer Frese, recently filed motions for a new trial and to arrest a judgment of conviction against the defendant. Bahena Rivera has yet to be sentenced because his defense team says new ti...

Jurors began their deliberations Thursday in the first degree murder trial of Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who is accused of killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018. He's pleaded not guilty and has alleged that two masked men abducted her and forced him at gunpoint to participate.

Testifying in court Wednesday, Cristhian Bahena Rivera denied killing Mollie Tibbetts, instead blaming two masked and armed men for her disappearance and death. He claimed they forced him at gunpoint to participate, and then threatened his family, which he says prevented him from alerting law enforcement.

Man accused of killing Mollie Tibbetts says armed men forced his involvement Share Updated: 8:47 AM CDT May 27, 2021 Chris Gothner Share Updated: 8:47 AM CDT May 27, 2021 Hide Transcript Show Transcript WILL GO ON AS SCHEDULED, ALONG WITH THE ICE CREAM SOCIAL SATURDAY AFTERNOON. RFO THE FIRST TIME TONIGHT, WE ARE HEARING FROM THE MAN CHARGED WITH KILLING MOLLIE TIBBET.TS CRISTHIAN BAHENA RIVERA TOOK THE STAND TODAY AND TOLD THE JURY TWO ARMED, MASKED ME...

Des Moines Register The man charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Mollie Tibbetts testified Wednesday that he didnt kill Tibbetts. Instead, he pointed blame at two unknown masked men — one armed with a gun, another with a knife — who surprised him at his home on the Yarrabee Farms property in rural Poweshiek County the night Tibbetts disappeared. The men, according to Cristhian Bahena Rivera, forced him to get into his car July 18, 2018, and drive around near Brooklyn, Iowa,...

Mollie Tibbetts Murder: Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys Both Accuse Witnesses of Lying in Closing Arguments Aaron Keller Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented wildly different versions of what happened when Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, 20, was murdered in 2018. Prosecutors painted the defendant, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, as a killer who suddenly targeted Tibbetts after spotting her jogging. The state said the defendant exploded in a fit of violent rage when T...

Des Moines Register The man charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Mollie Tibbetts testified Wednesday that he didnt kill Tibbetts. Instead, he pointed blame at two unknown masked men — one armed with a gun, another with a knife — who surprised him at his home on the Yarrabee Farms property in rural Poweshiek County the night Tibbetts disappeared. The men, according to Cristhian Bahena Rivera, forced him to get into his car July 18, 2018, and drive around near Brooklyn, Iowa,...

Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented wildly different versions of what happened when Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, 20, was murdered in 2018.