An illegal immigrant and former Iowa farmhand charged with first-degree murder in the abduction and stabbing death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts wants his trial moved to a more diverse county in Iowa
24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera's lawyers filed the motion Friday according to the Des Moines Register. The lawyers argue he should be tried outside Poweshiek County to allow for more minority representation in the jury pool.
Rivera is accused of killing the University of Iowa student who disappeared while out for a run July 18 in Brooklyn, Iowa. Investigators recovered her body a month later in a cornfield. A medical examiner said Tibbetts was stabbed to death.
Rivera also is accused of being in the country illegally. He worked at a dairy farm a few miles from where Tibbetts disappeared.