Jose Ibarra, who entered the U.S. illegally​, is charged with murder in the February killing, which helped fan the immigration debate during this year's presidential campaign.

A Venezuelan man "went hunting for females on the University of Georgia’s campus” earlier this year and ended up killing nursing student Laken Riley after a struggle, a prosecutor said Friday. A defense attorney said the evidence is circumstantial and doesn't prove his client is guilty.

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.

On Friday, Nov. 15, prosecutors alleged in an Athens County, Ga., court that Ibarra was out “hunting for females” on University of Georgia’s campus on the day of Riley’s killing, per the Los Angeles Times, AP and NBC News .

The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old Laken Riley was "hunting" for women on the University of Georgia's campus the day the nursing student was found brutally murdered on the school grounds, a prosecutor said Friday during opening statements in the bench trial.

Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan national, is charged with murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, battery and tampering with evidence. If convicted, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors have said they won’t pursue the death penalty.

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.

But a brutal attack sent shockwaves throughout the city and state. Laken Hope Riley, a former University of Georgia student enrolled in an Athens-based nursing program run by Augusta College,