Appeals court upholds conviction of Mollie Tibbetts’ killer

The Iowa Court of Appeals upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Cristhian Bahena Rivera for the 2018 fatal stabbing of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in Brooklyn, Iowa.

Bahena Rivera, who is serving a life sentence following a jury conviction in May 2021, argued his statements made to police should have been kept out of trial because it violated his rights. He also argued, in the appeal, that he should receive a new trial because of new evidence regarding a man being investigated for sex trafficking in the Brooklyn area, who could be involved in Tibbetts’ death.

The court stated Bahena Rivera agreed to talk with police and was free to leave when officers questioned him but he stayed and continued to talk with them. He even had access to his cellphone, so he could have obtained a ride home despite officers searching his vehicles at that time, the court noted.

The appeals court agreed with the district court that Bahena Rivera wasn’t in custody at the time of the questioning, Miranda warnings were not required and his statements should be allowed at trial.

The court also rejected Bahena Rivera’s argument that evidence related to a sex trafficking investigation would have determined a different outcome for him.

The only evidence tying that suspect to the Tibbetts case is a confession made by an inmate who said he killed Tibbetts, but as Bahena Rivera’s lawyers noted in their new trial motion, that confession doesn’t align with much of the other evidence in this case, including Bahena Rivera’s statements.

The inmate claimed he dismembered Tibbetts’ body, but her remains were in a severe decomposition, “suggesting she had been placed in a field for a while,” the court noted. Bahena Rivera said two masked men forced him to drive to where Tibbetts was running, which contradicted the inmate’s statements.

Evidence related to an investigation accused in a sex trafficking crime also didn’t offer a “reasonable probability of a different outcome for Bahena Rivera, according to the ruling. The only evidence tying the sex trafficker to this case are statements made by the inmate about working for a 50-year-old sex trafficker. The accused man happened to be about 50 at the time Tibbetts was killed. Nothing else suggests he was involved in the Tibbetts case, the court stated.

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