Transcript of the Prosecution's opening statement. I've broken it up into paragraphs for easier reading but otherwise, it's exactly as transcribed at the link below.
WATCH: Testimony begins in Bahena Rivera murder trial (kcci.com)
mr Klaver. On behalf of the state of Iowa, you may give your opening.
Thank you. Oh, molly Tibbets. This case is her story. This case is a story of molly's disappearance and the story of molly's murder, Mollie Tibbetts was 19 years old, going into her sophomore year at the University of Iowa. Mhm. She was home for the summer and home for molly was Brooklyn, Iowa. The town of about 1400 people in Passaic County, Parachute County is located about midway between des Moines in Iowa city, You know, on July 18 2018, molly was house sitting for her boyfriend Don't Jack and his brother Blake. They resided at 6 22 West des Moines ST in Brooklyn. She was also taking care of the dogs. While Dalton and Blake, we're out of town working, they worked construction.
Dalton was interviewed. Blake was the names molly was an avid runner and she ran across country and track in high school. On july 18th 2018, she put on her multicolored neon running shoes and left the house face that, sorry, go ahead. Sorry about that. It's customary for molly to run in the evenings And that's what she did on July 18. And she had her usual routes. One of those routes took her out of town on a gravel road on 385th Avenue. That's the route she took on july 18th 2018.
Shortly before eight p.m. that night Christina Stewart was traveling to her parents farm to tend the horses, and she passed molly on that road. Christina Stewart had known molly since molly was a small child and Christine Stewart was a hair stylist in town. She'd cut molly's hair. She recognized molly, and aside from mali's killer, Christina Stewart was the last person to see molly alive molly didn't show up for work the next day. She worked at a daycare in Grenell, which was a few miles from Brooklyn. She worked there the summer before and this was unusual for molly. She was a no call and a no show. Her family hadn't been in touch with her the night before or that morning. Dalton Jack hadn't been in touch with her and they began to call each other to find out where molly was.
They began to get worried and that's when they contacted law enforcement and that kicked off an exhaustive intensive investigation Spanning nearly five weeks for hundreds of people involved. Volunteers, local law enforcement Fire departments, the D. C. FBI and even Homeland Security. And they canvassed the entire town of Brooklyn. They searched nearby fields and waterways, ditches, ponds. The sheriff even went up in a helicopter search some of the local fields and as the hours turn into days and days into weeks, every lead they pursued came up empty after four weeks. They were no closer to finding molly then when they started.
But because of the resources and the investigation that the investigation had and the number of agents, one of the things that were able to do is collect the security camera footage and surveillance video from around the time frame and date an area while he was last seen. And as the agents meticulously went over this video on one of those videos that was taken from Logan college residents who lived down the street from Dalton and Blackjack on East de Moines Street, they saw a specter, a silhouette of what appeared to be a jogger in the time in the area, molly was last seen as they scoured that video for any other clue as to molly's disappearance, they noticed a certain vehicle appearing again and again and again on that video it's a black chevy mouth. Now that's a common make and model. But this one was unique. This vehicle had non standard rims. It had chrome door handles and it had crow mirrors. Yeah, shortly after this vehicle was identified as a vehicle of interest in the case.
How she county deputy and investigator steve kibbe. I was driving home on interstate 80 when he saw a black chevy Malibu with the chrome side nerves. So we followed that vehicle and he approached the driver. When it stopped, driver didn't speak much english and so he had the help of a neighbor to speak to. The driver. Driver identified himself with the birth certificate as christian Bahana Rivera. The defendant, as deputy Kivi continued to speak with the defendant. He learned that the defendant worked at Larrabee farms, which was a local dairy farm in Parachute County Iowa. Because of the language barrier, Deputy Kivi wasn't able to gain much other information from the defendant. He took pictures of the defendant, he took pictures of the vehicle and he ended that encounter.
Not long after that law enforcement decided they wanted to speak with the defendant further. And on 20 August 2018 they went to europe the farms to find the defendant speak with him in canvas area. They did find the defendant that day. In the afternoon. I spoke with the defendant asked if he'd do an interview to which he agreed that interview took place at the power sheet County sheriff's office. Now the defendants a native spanish speaker and so Pamela Romero in Iowa city police officer, also a native spanish speaker, was enlisted to conduct that interview. The interview went on for several hours. They talked about where the defendant was from, who his family was, who his friends and associates were, where he worked. Yeah. And defendant admitted at that time that he drove a black Chevy Malibu trade. Now he was the only person that drove that black chevy Malibu.
And then they started talking about mollie Tibbetts and what he knew about her disappearance. And at first defendant denied knowing anything about molly's disappearance except what he had seen around town with the flyers and news reports. And then he was showed a still photograph from that surveillance video. It was in that defendant relented on his story and he admitted that he had seen molly the night she disappeared. He admitted that he found her attractive, that she was hot in his words and he admitted after he saw her the first time, he circled back to take a second look.
Right Early in the morning on August 21 2018 deputy Kivi officer Romero. And the defendant Went to a cornfield off of 460th Ave 24 78 in rural power sheet county near the Parachute County in Iowa County line. This particular field had a gate and a long grassy in grass or drive That stretched more than 50 yards into the corn. Yeah, Yeah, defendant was interviewed again at that location and it was there that he made further admissions. He admitted that he'd seen molly The night she disappeared, July 18 2018. He admitted that he followed her that he got out of his car. He admitted to jogging to catch up with her that he wanted to get close to her. He admitted that molly didn't want to have anything to do with him that she threatened to call the police and he admitted he became angry at that time. He admitted to fighting with her and then he says the next thing that he remembers he's driving in his car the Malibu and he notices molly's earbuds and he remembers that molly is in his trunk. He admits taking molly's body out of the trunk. He admits seeing blood on molly's body and next he admits putting molly over his shoulder and you describe the body as someone who had fainted.
He admitted taking molly into the field, placing your face up and putting corn stocks on her body and then leaving Law enforcement, searched the field of the 460th Ave and they found a body decomposed beyond all recognition, wearing multicolored neon running shoes.
An autopsy was done in the body identity was confirmed as mollie Tibbetts body was examined and determined that molly had been stabbed Anywhere from 7 to 12 times in the chest, near the ribs, in the neck and in the skull. The medical examiner determined that the cause and manner of death was homicide by sharp force injury. The defendant's vehicle was searched, used to keep the chevy Malibu and blood was found on the trunk liner and in the trump analysis was done with that blood DNA analysis and it was matched to the DNA taken from the body was molly's blood in the defendant's chevy Malibu.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what I expect the evidence in this case to show. And when you go back in your deliberations, I'd like you to focus on the three primary aspects of the state's evidence point to the defendant as mollie Tibbetts killer. The first is a video, the video that shows the defendant's black chevy Malibu in the time in the area where molly was last seen, combine that with the defendant's admissions that he was the only one that drove that vehicle and that he was alone that night. Second aspect of the state's evidence for you to focus on is molly's blood in the defendant's Malibu. In the third of the defendants admissions. His admissions that he saw molly that he found her attractive, that he ran alongside her, that mali threatened to call the police. That he became angry that he fought with molly That he drove to the field at 24 78 460th Avenue. The field with the gate and the long ingress into the corn close to the county line that he remembered molly being in the trunk, that his admissions of taking molly's bloody body out of the trunk, putting her on his shoulder, taking her into the field, leaving her there, covering her with corn stalks.
Ladies and gentlemen, when you examine this evidence together, there can be no other conclusion than that the defendant killed mollie Tibbetts, and I'll ask you to return a verdict, the only verdict that the evidence demands that you find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.
Trial in Mollie Tibbetts' death begins with prosecution's opening statement
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