Federal prosecutors charged Athens resident Diego Ibarra with possessing a fraudulent U.S. permanent resident card late Friday, the same day police charged his younger brother with murder in the death of a nursing student on the University of Georgia campus.
Diego Ibarra, 29 and from Venezuela, is criminally charged with possession of a fraudulent document after authorities became aware of his presence in the U.S. as part of their homicide investigation into Thursday’s death of Laken Hope Riley, the Department of Justice announced in a press release.
Another undocumented Venezuelan man living in Athens, Georgia — who is the brother of a suspect accused of killing on the University of Georgia campus —— was charged Friday night with possessing a fraudulent green card, according to officials.
Diego Ibarra, 29, was charged by a federal criminal complaint and is being held in state custody, the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Georgia said in a press release. Ibarra could face as many as ten years in prison if convicted.
The federal arrest affidavit for Diego Ibarra shows after he made an asylum claim in El Paso, he was allowed to travel to New York. But in September 2023, Athens-Clarke County Police charged him with drunken driving and driving without a license. A month later, police arrested him again, this time for shoplifting. And in December, he allegedly skipped court and racked up another charge.
