Overview

• Judge Patrick Haggard issued a prompt order for a mental competency assessment to be held at the Georgia Department of Corrections or a designated hospital.
• Defense attorneys argue Ibarra suffers from a congenital cognitive impairment that left him unable to understand or participate in his November trial.
• Prosecutor Sheila Ross noted that no evidence of incompetence emerged during the trial but deferred to the court’s discretion in mandating the evaluation.
• If the assessment finds Ibarra was unfit at the time of his original proceedings, his lawyers may seek to overturn the life-without-parole sentence and petition for a retrial.
• Ibarra’s 2022 illegal border entry and brief release in El Paso helped prompt the Laken Riley Act, which requires federal detention of noncitizen defendants charged with violent crimes.