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.

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.

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.

Prosecutors claim Jose Ibarra, 26, attacked the Augusta University nursing student, hitting her head and asphyxiating her with the plan to sexually assault her.

The undocumented migrant accused of killing Laken Riley was “hunting for females” when he came across the jogging Georgia nursing student, who “fought for her life” and fired off a 911

The trial has begun for Jose Ibarra, the man accused of murdering Laken Riley, a nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus. Riley's death in February became a rallying cry for some political candidates after it was revealed that Ibarra entered the country illegally.

The judge who will decide the fate of an undocumented migrant accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley is a no-nonsense, silvery-white-haired jurist whose father was killed in an armed robbery.