The trial of Jose Ibarra, the man accused of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, began Friday with prosecutors presenting a chilling 911 call allegedly linked to the attack. Riley was found dead on the University of Georgia campus in February.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Laken Riley left her home and went for a run on a trail on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia, but never returned home.

A trial is set to get underway for a man accused of killing a Georgia nursing student earlier this year, in a case that fanned the immigration debate in the last election cycle

The chilling 911 call that captured Georgia nursing student Laken Riley’s horrifying final moments was played in court Friday – leaving her grieving mother in a flood of tears during the first day of opening statements.

The man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley has waived his right to a jury, paving the way for his bench trial, which is expected to begin Friday morning.