“Because of your actions, Mollie’s father, Rob, will never get to walk his only daughter down the aisle,” Ms. Calderwood said. “Because of your actions, Mr. Rivera, I will never get to see my daughter become a mother.”
Mr. Bahena Rivera, who is planning to appeal his conviction, did not speak at the sentencing. His lawyers also declined to comment.
In Iowa, a conviction for first-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Lawyers for Mr. Bahena Rivera tried unsuccessfully to argue that someone else had committed the killing.
During his trial, The Des Moines Register reported, Mr. Bahena Rivera testified that two armed and masked men had confronted him in his home and had ordered him to drive them to Brooklyn, where one of them killed Ms. Tibbetts, put her body in his trunk and ordered him to drive to a cornfield.
Judge Joel D. Yates of the Eighth Judicial District rejected that defense during the sentencing.
“Mr. Bahena Rivera, you and you alone forever changed the lives of those who loved Mollie Tibbetts,” Judge Yates said.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/us/mollie-tibbets-murder-life-sentence.html
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