State prosecutors trying the case against the man who allegedly killed 20 year old, jogger, Mollie Tibbetts filed a motion in Montezuma, Iowa district court stating they did not oppose his request for expert witnesses.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Mollie Tibbetts,
who disappeared July 18, 2018, from Brooklyn, Iowa.
Rivera told investigators he was following Tibbetts on her jog and, according to an affidavit, panicked when she threatened to call police and "blocked" his memory. He said later he parked in the entrance of a cornfield and found Tibbetts, with the side of her head covered in blood in the trunk of his car.
The motion from Rivera's attorneys requested an expert on sleep deprivation to discuss its role in interrogation techniques, Another expert witness is to be permitted to testify regarding forensic DNA evidence in the case. A third request is that Rivera's interpreter should be appointed as an expert for the defendant.
State prosecutors filed a response in court that said the state does not resist the defendant's motion to employ the experts for his defense at state expense.
Rivera was given his first Miranda warning by the lead interviewer, Iowa City Police Officer Pamela Romero, whose native language is Spanish. That warning was "incomplete in that the officer giving it inadvertently omitted informing the defendant what he says can be used against him in court at a later time," according to a document filed by the prosecution last week.
Rivera's trial is scheduled to start on February 4, 2020, in Woodbury County.
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