A judge on Friday will decide the fate of the man charged with murdering nursing student Laken Riley on the UGA campus.

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.

A bench trial is also faster and less expensive than a jury trial. The case has attracted national attention after it was discovered that Ibarra and his brothers, who are from Venezuela, were in the country illegally at the time of Laken Riley's murder.