A jury has found Cristhian Bahena Rivera guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old college student Mollie Tibbetts in her hometown of Brooklyn. The jury in Davenport started deliberating again at 8:30 Friday morning, broke for lunch, and then reached a verdict after what was a total of just more than seven hours of deliberation. The verdict was read in court at 2:45 p.m.

“We the jury find the defendant Cristian Bahena Rivera guilty of the crime of murder in the first-degree,” the bailiff read.

Bahena stood and showed no emotion as the verdict was read. He now faces life in prison.

Prosecutor Scott Brown admitted to sleepless nights as the trial progressed, but stressed during a news conference in Davenport that the trial was about Tibbetts and her family.

“Even though we would never have the ability to bring Mollie back, we hope moving forward they know the person that did this to her is going to be held fully accountable.” Brown stated to the media.
Marshalltown-based defense attorney Chad Frese also spoke with reporters following the verdict.

“We respect the jury’s verdict, they took a lot of time to come to the verdict, we wish it would have been different of course..we respect the jury’s verdict,” Frese says.