State agrees some of the suspect's statements should be excluded as evidence in Mollie Tibbetts' slaying

The state has agreed that some statements made by the man charged in University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts' death should not be used as evidence at trial because of an issue with the reading of his Miranda rights, according to recent court filings.

Attorneys for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, an undocumented immigrant charged with first-degree murder in 20-year-old Tibbetts’ death, have argued since March that their client's Miranda rights were violated and that certain evidence should be excluded from trial.

Tibbetts went missing July 18, 2018, while on a run in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. She was found in a cornfield on Aug. 21, 2018. On the same day, authorities arrested Bahena Rivera, now 25, in connection with Tibbetts' death. 

More:Mollie Tibbetts: What we know about the Iowa student, her murder, the man suspected of killing her

State attorneys on Friday filed court documents in which they conceded that the initial Miranda warning given to Bahena Rivera around 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, 2018, was incomplete because the officer "inadvertently" failed to inform Bahena Rivera that anything he said could be used against him in court at a later time.

His Miranda rights were accurately read to him a second time at 5:50 a.m., while he was in a vehicle near the cornfield where Tibbetts’ body was found, according to the state.

The state agreed with the defense that any statements Bahena Rivera made between 11:30 p.m. and 5:50 a.m. should be suppressed, but argued that the prosecution should have the right to use any of the statements made at that time to rebut testimony.

Bahena Rivera is set to appear in court Oct. 22 for the start of a suppression hearing, when a judge will decide what evidence will be allowed at trial. 

The defense previously argued that Bahena Rivera was not told he had the right to refuse authorities who requested to search his car, that he made "involuntary" confessions under the promise of leniency, and that he was placed in custody before being read his Miranda rights, so-called because of a Supreme Court case that established the necessity for authorities to advise suspects of their rights.

His attorneys previously cited what they called "a number of concerning factors in this case," including Bahena Rivera's limited understanding of the English language, his lack of education and that he fell asleep during the interview.

They also claimed he was offered promissory leniency, or a promise that something could be gained from confessing, which they said can "induce false confessions leading to wrongful convictions of the innocent."

“Help yourself, do it for yourself, think about you,” one of the officers in the interview told Bahena Rivera, according to an official transcript cited in court records. “Think about your daughter that will need you. Right now, don’t you see that little face of that little girl?”

The state on Friday said in the court filing that at no point were Bahena Rivera's confessions involuntary, coerced or part of a false confession.

"The defendant led police directly to Mollie’s body at the conclusion of the interview, he was seen in proximity to Mollie while she was running on the last night of her life, and Mollie’s blood was found in the trunk of the Defendant’s car," the prosecution wrote. "All of these facts are extrinsic to the interview and independently establish the defendant was the killer, not a false confessor."

The officers' interview tactics weren't nefarious, prosecutors wrote. Had they been, they wouldn't have provided any attempt at reading Bahena Rivera his Miranda rights.

The state also wrote that Bahena Rivera directly implicated himself in Tibbetts' death both before and after his Miranda rights were read and that the discovery of Tibbetts' body should be included in evidence because it would have eventually been found.

"Mollie’s body was located in an open farm field," prosecutors wrote. "Inevitably, whether at harvest or before, the field would have been emptied of crops and Mollie’s body would have been visible to the naked eye of farmers and passersby."

A spokesperson for the Iowa Attorney General's office did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

Chad Frese, one of Bahena Rivera's attorneys, said the defense is still evaluating the state's response. Although they agree with the prosecution's statement that at least part of the statement should be suppressed, they still say their motion to suppress evidence should be granted in totality.

Authorities have said that Bahena Rivera led them to Tibbetts’ body in the early morning hours of his arrest after telling police that he chased the young jogger after driving past her the evening she disappeared. She threatened to call police, at which point he said he got mad and “blocked his memory.” Bahena Rivera admitted to then finding her body in his trunk, which he took to a field and covered with corn leaves.

Autopsy results show Tibbetts died of “multiple sharp force injuries.”

Bahena Rivera's jury trial has been pushed to February. Bahena Rivera's attorneys filed an application in October to continue the trial to a later date, citing forensic evidence released by the State of Iowa Criminalistics Laboratory as the reason for the desired delay.

Anna Spoerre covers crime and courts for the Des Moines Register. She can be contacted at aspoerre@dmreg.com, 515-284-8387 or on Twitter at @annaspoerre.

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