Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette via AP, Pool
- Cristhian Bahena Rivera was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- Rivera was found guilty of the first-degree murder in the death of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.
- Tibbetts was killed in 2018 while out for a jog.
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Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, will spend the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of parole for the murder of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts.
"Mr. Bahena Rivera, you and you alone forever changed the lives of those who loved Mollie Tibbetts, and for that, you and you alone will receive the following sentence," Judge Joel Yates said as he handed down the lifetime sentence.
Rivera was convicted of first-degree murder in May. Video evidence presented at the trial showed Rivera stalked Tibbetts, who was out for a jog, from his car in 2018. He later led authorities to a cornfield where Tibbetts' body was.
Autopsy reports showed Tibbetts had been stabbed to death. She was 20 years old.
A victim impact statement from Tibbetts' mother, Laura Calderwood, was read ahead of the sentencing. Rivera declined to speak at the hearing.
"Mollie was a young woman who simply wanted to go for a quiet run on the evening of July 18, and you chose to violently and sadistically end that life," read Calderwood's statement directed at Rivera.
"Because of your act, Dalton Jack will never get to give Mollie the engagement ring he had purchased for her. Because of your act, Mollie's father, Rob, will never get to walk his only daughter down the aisle. Because of your act, Mr. Rivera, I will never get to see my daughter become a mother," the statement said.
Calderwood went on to reference Rivera's own daughter, who was 5 years old when her father was convicted in May.
"I do hope one day Paulina has the opportunity to become a mother, but how will she ever explain to her children who their grandfather is?" Calderwood's statement said. "This is the legacy you left behind for your only child, Mr. Rivera. I don't know whose situation is worse."