The online news arm of MSNBC is taking heavy fire for posting an article attempting to humanize the illegal immigrant killer of Georgia student Laken Riley one day after he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The Daily Mail reported that social media fury is growing against the liberal outlet since it published a story about Jose Ibarra, 25, a Venezuelan gang member living in the country illegally. Under a headline stating Ibarra “never stood a chance” in court, MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos wrote a lengthy summary about the mountain of evidence stacked up against him, including that Ibarra’s DNA was found beneath Riley’s fingernails, indicating a physical fight. The 22-year-old was strangled to death near the University of Georgia campus after Ibarra attacked her while out on her morning run. A horrific 18-minute 911 call recounted Riley’s terror as she sought to put distance between herself and her stalker.
However, it wasn’t the evidence that damned Ibarra, the author conjectured. “[F]or all the political controversy, the outcome of this trial was never in doubt,” Cevallos wrote. His skewed analysis prompted pushback from Donald Trump, Jr. after the piece made the rounds in conservative social media circles. “You literally can’t make up this level of depravity,” Trump, Jr. wrote in response to users who pointed out how Cevallos blamed Ibarra’s conviction on technicalities in the legal system. “These people are sick. The guy is a murderer. He’s an illegal alien that killed an innocent young woman, but MSNBC would rather go to bat for him. However, much you hate MSNBC it’s not enough!”
You literally can’t make up this level of depravity. These people are sick. The guy is a murderer. He’s an illegal alien that killed an innocent young woman but MSNBC would rather go to bat for him.
However, much you hate MSNBC it’s not enough! pic.twitter.com/3YSVmbbVBD— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 22, 2024
Elsewhere, Cevallos downplayed the benefit of Ibarra opting for a bench trial, where his fate was in the hands of a single judge rather than a jury. The MSNBC analyst reasoned Ibarra “stood no chance with a jury” but fared no better still. “But it apparently had no chance with the judge, either, since he was convicted anyway,” he wrote. Cevallos concluded that the judge may have run afoul of Georgia law by sentencing Ibarra to consecutive rather than concurrent sentences, giving observers “the best glimpse into the judge’s opinion of this defendant.”
Followers of Trump, Jr. rushed to blast the author for “engaging farming” with a clickbait article that only served up outrage and took advantage of the innocent death of a young woman. “Disgusting article headline suggesting the killer was convicted for reasons other than he did it,” one critic said on X. After Ceballos wrote on X, “The Jose Ibarra murder case was open and shut. Here’s why even the defense knew it,” users were quick to roast him. […]
— Read More: trendingpoliticsnews.com
