Man gets life sentence in 2018 killing of Mollie Tibbetts
By RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the stabbing death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts three years ago. Judge Joel Yates sentenced Cristhian Bahena Rivera on Monday to the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder in Iowa, which doesn’t have the death penalty. The 27-year-old former dairy farm laborer has been jailed since his arrest in August 2018. The sentence caps a case that inflamed anger over illegal immigration, fueled fears about random violence against solo female runners, and took several noteworthy twists during and after Bahena Rivera’s trial in May.
