The bench trial for the man accused of killing a nursing student on UGA's campus will begin its second day on Monday. Jose Ibarra faces multiple charges including malice murder in connection to the death of 22-year-old Laken Riley.

In the nine months since Laken Riley was killed while jogging at the University of Georgia, her death turned into a lightning rod over crime and illegal immigration and cast an ominous shadow over the college town of Athens.

The case was swept up in the debate over immigration after investigators said the perpetrator was a migrant from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally.

Jose Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally​, is charged with murder in the February killing, which helped fan the immigration debate during this year's presidential campaign.

The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old Laken Riley was "hunting" for women on the University of Georgia's campus the day the nursing student was found brutally murdered on the school grounds, a prosecutor said Friday during opening statements in the bench trial.

A trial is set to get underway for a man accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, in a case that fanned the immigration debate in the last election cycle.

Jose Ibarra is charged with killing the University of Georgia nursing student, inflaming the national debate about immigration.

The bench trial for murder suspect Jose Ibarra began Friday as the prosecution laid out evidence in the Laken Riley slaying.

A man on trial for the murder of Laken Riley was out “hunting for females” on the University of Georgia campus when he came across the 22-year-old on her morning jog and killed her, a court heard on Friday.