Stay updated with breaking news from Bart Klaver. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
When Is a Lynching a Lynching?. A Black man was hanged, then a group of white people burned his body by a US roadside. His family want police and prosecutors to acknowledge race was a factor, but they still deny it This story was...
A Black man was hanged, then a group of white people burned his body by a US roadside. His family want police and prosecutors to acknowledge race was a factor, but they still deny it
Print this article A judge denied a motion for a new trial from the man convicted of murder in the 2018 stabbing death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, a farmhand who entered the United States illegally when he was a teenager, was convicted of first-degree murder on May 28 after a jury trial. Defense lawyers argued he was coerced into killing Tibbetts by masked agitators. Earlier in the month, Rivera's attorneys suggested he be allowed a new trial as two separate witnesses alleged a man named Gavin Jones confessed to the murder. Judge Joel Yates denied...
View Comments The judge overseeing the case against Cristhian Bahena Rivera voiced skepticism repeatedly Thursday as the former farmhand's 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 additional possible suspects. Thursday's hearing, set to hear that evidence, involved multiple wit...
July 27, 2021 kuzma/iStock (POWESHIEK COUNTY, Iowa) — The lead agent who investigated the disappearance and murder of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts testified Tuesday that there was no doubt in his mind who killed her. “Cristhian Rivera murdered Mollie Tibbetts,” special agent Trent Vileta said in court. Vileta rejected a theory by Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s attorneys that he was framed for Tibbetts’ kidnapping and murder as part of a sex trafficking ring. The attorneys claim the alleged sex trafficking ring was investigated and that resulting evidence was withheld fr...