A Venezuelan man was convicted of murdering Georgia nursing student Laken Riley in a case that became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration during this year’s presidential race.

Jose Ibarra, 26, was found guilty of murder and related charges in Rileys February death and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The verdict was delivered Wednesday by Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard after Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial, leaving the judge to decide the case alone. The sentencing came shortly thereafter.

Emotions ran high in the courtroom as Rileys family and roommates wept when the verdict was announced. Ibarra remained expressionless as the decision was read.

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The slaying, which took place in late February at the University of Georgia’s Athens, Georgia, campus, sparked debates over national immigration policy after the federal authorities announced that her killer had illegally entered the U.S. in 2022.

Ibarra had been allowed to stay in the country while he pursued his immigration case. Riley’s death has been heavily politicized, most publicly earlier this year during President Biden’s State of the Union address when Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, rose to advocate for Riley.

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The trial ultimately began on Friday, and prosecutors called more than a dozen law enforcement officers, Riley’s roommates and a woman who lived in the same apartment as Ibarra for testimony.

His defense attorneys called a cop, a jogger and one of his neighbors on Tuesday and rested their case on Wednesday morning. Prosecutor Shiela Ross told the judge that Ibarra had encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle.

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Riley, 22, had been a student at the nearby Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, which itself is a small college city about 70 miles east of Atlanta.

Dustin Kirby, Ibarra’s defense attorney, said in his opening that Riley’s death was a tragedy and called the evidence in the case graphic disturbing, but he said there ultimately wasn’t enough to sufficiently prove that his client actually killed Riley.

Riley’s parents were present in the courtroom throughout the trial, as were her roommates and other friends and family.