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IOWA CITY, Iowa The man on trial in the 2018 kidnapping and stabbing death of a University of Iowa student first claimed in dramatic testimony Wednesday that two masked men were responsible for the crime but forced him to participate at gunpoint.
In a surprising development, the defense called Cristhian Bahena Rivera as a witness in his trial for first degree murder. He admitted his black car was the one seen in surveillance footage surrounding Mollie Tibbetts while jogging in Brooklyn, Iowa on July 18, 2018. He also admitted that it ended up in the trunk of his car, that he had hidden his body in a cornfield and told investigators where to find it a month later.
But the farm worker presented a far different account of what happened than investigators and prosecutors have claimed, denying being responsible for the stabbing to the head, neck and chest that took Tibbetts caused his death.
Bahena Rivera said two armed men, dressed in black with caps on their faces, showed up to her trailer after they finished showering that evening. The men ordered her to get into her car and drive, and they passed Tibbetts as she ran several times before asking her to stop, he said.
Bahena Rivera, 26, said a man armed with a knife got out of the car and took a rural road. The man disappeared for about 10 minutes as the second man in the back seat of the car got nervous and said: Come on, Jack, he asserted.
The accused said he did not know the identity of the men, but his lawyers tried to raise suspicion about Tibbetts boyfriend Dalton Jack, who admitted to having an affair with another woman and past anger issues. Police say they cleared Jack as a suspect after establishing he was out of town for work that day.
Bahena Rivera said the men loaded something into her trunk, told her to drive several miles to a rural area, turn off the car, wait a few minutes and leave. They said they knew his ex-girlfriend and young daughter, and that they would hurt them if he told anyone what had happened, he said.
Bahena Rivera said the men left on foot on the road and that he never saw them again. He said he opened the trunk a few minutes later and found Tibbetts’ body, which he said was heavy when he carried it to the cornfield.
Mollie Tibbetts was reported missing in her hometown of Brooklyn, eastern Iowa on July 19, 2018. Jenny Fiebelkorn
He said he covered her body with corn stalks because I didn’t want her to be too exposed to the sun, ”and then left and never planned to discuss again what had happened. Bahena Rivera said he left Tibbetts’ phone, Fitbit, and headphones by the side of the road.
Bahena Rivera said he was not telling the truth when detectives began questioning him about Tibbetts’ disappearance on August 20, 2018, because he was concerned for his daughter’s safety. He then said he approached Tibbetts as she was running, got into a fight with her after threatening to call the police, then passed out “before hiding her body.
He said he agreed to lead investigators to Tibbetts’ body early on August 21 because he was tired and wanted the interrogation to end. And he said the police urged him to put me in family shoes and think about how he would feel if his daughter was missing.
Bahena Rivera recounted growing up in southern Mexico and arriving in the United States illegally after she was 17, crossing a river to Texas on an inflatable raft with around 10 other people. He immediately went to live in Iowa, where his father’s brothers had settled, and got a job within days milking cows on a dairy farm, he said.
Bahena Rivera said he worked 12 hours a day and was careful to avoid the police for fear of deportation. He said he never had contact with law enforcement until investigators responsible for Tibbetts’ disappearance identified his vehicle on surveillance footage of an owner on his race route.
Most legal experts didn’t expect Bahena Rivera to testify, and his defense gave no indication that he would. His lawyer Chad Frese said during jury selection he was torn over whether to call his client as a witness. He said if Bahena Rivera does not testify it would appear that he has something to hide, but if he does, he could be seen as trying to save himself.
Jurors sat up in their seats when Bahena Rivera took the witness stand, and prosecutors furiously took notes during her testimony. Bahena Rivera showed little emotion but her voice dropped and trembled slightly as he discussed the men’s alleged threats to her daughter.
The trial, which began last week, is being held at the Scott County Courthouse in Davenport. Bahena Rivera faces life imprisonment if convicted.
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