Molly Tibbets murder case delayed amid bomb defense pleas

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A judge ruled Wednesday that the former farm worker convicted of killing University of Iowa student Molly Tibbets will not face sentence this week — after defense attorneys accused prosecutors of withholding evidence about a nearby sex-trafficking “trap house” and other potential suspects.

Krisian Bahina Rivera was expected to be sentenced to life in prison Thursday after being convicted in May of killing Tibbets in the summer of 2018 and dumping her body in a cornfield.

Instead, Judge Joel Yates agreed to delay sentencing so they could schedule a hearing on a request for a new trial after defense attorneys accused prosecutors of failing to disclose an investigation into sex trafficking near where the 20-year-old disappeared. , according to the British newspaper The Guardian. To ABC News.

The shocking turn of events came a week after defense attorneys requested a new trial, claiming that witnesses independently told police a man who had bragged to them about the rape and murder of a college student and the framing of Bahina Rivera, the network reported.

Christian Bahena Rivera allegedly murdered University of Iowa student Molly Tibbets in 2018. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, pool, FileDefense Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s lawyers have argued for the murder of Molly Tibbets. AP Photo / Charlie Neibergall, Pool

Bahina Rivera, a 27-year-old Mexican national who was a farmer, testified that he was kidnapped by two masked men who forced him to be an accomplice in their murder.

The judge’s cancellation of the schedule came as defense attorneys filed documents claiming that prosecutors had not disclosed that policemen were investigating a sex trafficking “trap house” in New Sharon, Iowa, about 27 miles from where Tibbets disappeared, according to the report. .

The article said the 50-year-old suspect in that case was living with the mother of 11-year-old Xavier Harrelson, who disappeared from a trailer park the day before Bahina Rivera’s conviction.

Molly Tibbets in 2016

Defense attorneys reportedly found that at least 10 more children were recently reported missing in the county where Tibbets’ body was dumped.

Last week, defense attorneys told the judge that two new witnesses came to police in May and spoke independently with a man who claimed he and a 50-year-old sex trafficker killed the student and arrested the accused, according to the report.

ABC reported that “this Mexican shouldn’t be in prison for killing Molly Tibbets, because I raped and killed her,” and a witness reportedly told police that the supposed real killer told him while they were in prison.

The new witness said the man told him he first saw Tibbets bound and gagged in the “trap house” owned by the unnamed, 50-year-old, the outlet reported.

Another witness told the mayor a similar story about the same supposed real killer, but cops said the witness was drunk and unreliable, according to the article.

The two new witnesses reportedly called the police on the day Bahina Rivera testified that he was kidnapped by two masked men who forced him to drive to where they said Tibbets was running.

The farm worker said that when they found the student, one of the men stabbed her to death and had him lead the body into a cornfield and dump the body.

Bahina Rivera, an illegal immigrant, claimed that he was not involved in the murder, and did not go to the police because the masked men threatened to kill his daughter’s mother.

Former President Trump has defended the case as evidence that the United States needs to tighten border security.

Molly Tibbets has reportedly disappeared near a sex-trafficking “trap house” in New Sharon, Iowa. AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File.

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