Laken Riley’s Stepfather Reads Journal Entry His Stepdaughter Addressed To Her ‘Future Husband’

After her killer was found guilty on Wednesday, Laken Riley’s stepfather, John Phillips, read one of her last journal lines to her “future husband” with emotion.

Jose Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was found guilty on all ten counts of killing Riley outside the University of Georgia campus on February 22 by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard. Ibarra was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Phillips recounted the words Riley penned in her Jan. 17, 2023, post, in which she pledged to be a caring, God-fearing future wife and mother to her future family, as the family begged for Ibarra to serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Here it is: “To my future husband, as silly as I feel writing this, my old small group leader once recommended it, so here I am,” Phillips read, quoting one of her final diary entries on December 17, 23. I want my future spouse to know that I’m thinking of him and that I’m working hard every day to improve my existing relationships in order to be the greatest wife I can be for him and our children in the future. I’m concentrating on God and his definition of a true, Christian life in order to best exhibit those qualities. I pray that you understand that I have complete faith and trust in God, knowing that He has personally fashioned this connection. I pray that we keep exalting the Lord, giving him first priority in all facets of our lives, and that we bring up our current and future families to be devout Christians.

I thank God for you before I even knew you, and I pray that He is the one who is singing in our relationship because it is a gift from Him. Her stepfather read, “I can’t wait to love you for the rest of our lives in the best way I know how.” “I hope you understand the significance of our love and our aspirations for our relationship. I pray that our faith in God and in each other will overcome any difficulties we encounter. I hope our relationship endures forever, Laken, your future wife. that our lovely Laken was your honor. That your Honor represents only a small portion of what was cruelly and tragically stolen from her and us on that day.

Observe:

Riley was jogging when she was kidnapped by the convicted murderer, who broke in illegally in September 2022 and killed her by using an inanimate weapon to cause blunt force damage to her skull. Malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with purpose to rape, aggravated violence, delaying or hindering a 9-1-1 call, tampering with evidence, and being a peeping tom were among the charges the judge found Ibarra guilty of.

Due to a shortage of incarceration capacity at the time, Ibarra was released on parole after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) verified that he had entered the nation unlawfully through an entryway close to El Paso, Texas. According to ICE, he was later taken into custody for allegedly engaging in a way that would have caused harm to a minor under the age of 17 in New York City.

Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, his former roommate, testified at a hearing on Monday that she and Ibarra took a “humanitarian flight” from New York City to Athens, Georgia, in September 2023, four months prior to Riley’s murder.