By Brian Brant
(IOWA CITY, Iowa) The sentencing for the man convicted for the first-degree murder in the death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts has been delayed, according to KIWA Radio.
The attorneys for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who was convicted by a jury in May, filed a motion after an inmate claimed another inmate told them he killed Tibbetts in Brooklyn, Iowa in July 2018 and planned to leave her body near a Hispanic man to make him appear guilty.
That inmate also claimed he spotted the victim gagged and bound at a trap house, a place where illegal drugs are sold, run by 50-year-old James Manuel Lowe.
Bahena Rivera's defense attorneys, Chad and Jennifer Frese, said they learned that Lowe dated Sarah Harrelson whose 11-year-old son, Xavior Harrelson, has been missing since May 27.
The Freses argued in another motion that prosecutors withheld evidence and that Bahena Rivera needs a new trial.
That motion will be heard Thursday morning in Montezuma, Iowa.