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Judge Delays Illegal Immigrant’s Sentencing In Mollie Tibbetts Case After New Witnesses Emerge

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An illegal immigrant had his sentencing delayed after new witnesses came forward with information on the murder of Mollie Tibbetts in May, Fox News reported Wednesday.

A judge delayed 27-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s sentencing because of two new witnesses who support his claim that two masked men killed Tibbetts and made him drive them to where her body was dumped, according to Fox News. Tibbets, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, disappeared on a run in Brooklyn, Iowa, in July 2018.

Bahena Rivera illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico as a teenager and showed law enforcement officials where Tibbetts body was disposed of in a remote cornfield around a month after her disappearance, according to Fox News. A jury convicted Bahena Rivera of first-degree murder on May 28.

We are at the Poweshiek County courthouse where Cristhian Bahena Rivera will soon have a hearing. Today was originally his sentencing date, but new information has pushed that back. We will be streaming this hearing live on our website and Facebook page. @KCRG

— Kristin Rogers (@KristinRogersTV) July 15, 2021

One of the new witnesses told investigators an inmate at a county jail said he and another man framed a Hispanic man for Tibbett’s murder after the pair stabbed her, Fox News reported. Tibbetts was reportedly kidnapped for a sex trafficking ring before she was murdered.

A second new witness reportedly told a local sheriff’s office she was in the vehicle with the man identified by the first witness a month before he was in the county jail who told her, “that Mexican shouldn’t be in jail for killing Mollie [Tibbetts] because I raped her and killed her,” Iowa News Now reported.

Bahena Rivera’s defense attorneys asked for a new hearing for the state to release any information authorities have concerning the sex trafficking organizations and Judge Joel Yates approved the request, according to Fox News.