By KATE BRUMBACK

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has ordered a mental evaluation of the Venezuelan man convicted of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

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A judge in November found Jose Ibarra guilty of murder and other crimes in Riley’s February 2024 killing and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ibarra is seeking a new trial, and his lawyers asked the judge to order a mental evaluation as part of that process.

Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard’s order for a mental evaluation was sent to the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Tuesday, according to a letter filed with the court.

Riley’s killing became part of the national debate about immigration during last year’s presidential campaign. Ibarra had entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to stay while he pursued his immigration case, federal immigration authorities said after his arrest.

President Donald Trump in January signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.

Prosecutors said Ibarra encountered Riley while she was running on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22 and killed her during a struggle. Riley, 22, was a student at Augusta University College of Nursing, which also has a campus in Athens, about 70 miles east of Atlanta.

In a court filing last month, Ibarra’s post-conviction attorneys, James Luttrell and David Douds, said they believe Ibarra suffers from “congenital deficiency” that could make him “incapable of preparing a defense and standing trial.” Ibarra “lacks the mental capacity” to understand the proceedings, and his attorney wrote that he believes that was the case at the time of the killing and at the time of trial.

Ibarra, 27, had waived his right to a jury trial, meaning it was up to Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard alone to hear and decide the case.

“A criminal defendant must personally and intelligently participate in the waiver of the constitutional right to a trial by jury,” Luttrell and Douds wrote, noting that Ibarra’s trial attorney did not ask for a competency evaluation.

Prosecutor Sheila Ross wrote in a court filing responding to the request that there were “no challenges or concerns” about Ibarra’s competency prior to trial and that “there is nothing in the trial record that would suggest that Defendant was not competent during his trial.” But she wrote that she does not oppose the request for a competency evaluation.

Haggard last week filed an order asking the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to evaluate Ibarra with the aid of a Spanish-language interpreter.

He asked for findings on whether Ibarra was capable of understanding the pretrial proceedings involving the waiver of his right to a jury trial, as well as the trial itself, and whether he was capable of assisting his attorney to prepare his defense. He also wants to know whether Ibarra understands the post-conviction proceedings and can aid in preparing his defense.

Ibarra was convicted on Nov. 20 and his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial on Dec. 2. Under Georgia law, a notice of appeal must be filed within 30 days of a conviction becoming final, which is the date of sentencing or the denial of a motion for a new trial, whichever is later. Therefore, the filing of a motion for a new trial effectively extends the deadline to file an appeal.

Ramsey County has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a woman’s lawsuit after she was raped by the driver of an Arkansas-based prison transport company contracted by the county.

Jennifer Seelig sued Ramsey County last year in U.S. District Court in Minnesota. She alleged the county and Inmate Services Corporation knew or should have known ISC’s transport officers had sexually assaulted female detainees before and during the county’s contract period with ISC as they had resulted in numerous lawsuits and were heavily publicized.

The settlement came after U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan denied the county’s motion to dismiss the case.

Ramsey County contracted with ISC to transport individuals to the county to appear on arrest warrants.

Employee Rogeric Hankins sexually assaulted Seelig in April 2020 in a Missouri rest stop bathroom while transporting her to St. Paul from Washington state, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Hankins pleaded guilty in federal court in Missouri in 2023 and was sentenced to nine years in prison for violating Seelig’s civil rights.

“Despite an ISC employee raping a Ramsey County detainee in 2019, just one year before Hankins raped Seelig, Ramsey County did nothing to prevent future rapes or sexual assaults. It maintained its contract with ISC and, in doing so, maintained a policy of deliberate indifference to the constitutional violations happening under its nose,” Seelig’s complaint stated.

2nd case still active

Another former Ramsey County inmate, Danielle Sivels, said she was raped by another employee of the same transportation company in 2019.

In a 2023 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, Sivels said she is one of at least 15 women Marquet Johnson sexually assaulted during inmate transports. She too faults Ramsey County officials for hiring ISC despite prominent media coverage about the company’s misconduct and despite knowing about the 2016 sexual assault of a Ramsey County inmate by a different transportation contractor.

In denying the county’s motion to dismiss Sivels’ lawsuit last year, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank wrote last year that it was a “close call at best” but “the totality of the allegations plausibly show that Ramsey County had notice of issues of sexual abuse by their transport contractors.”

That case still is pending.

Johnson was sentenced last year in U.S. District Court in New Mexico to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of willful deprivation of civil rights.

According to Seelig’s complaint, Ramsey County failed to perform its duties by contracting with ISC when it wasn’t licensed as a protective agent, which is required by state law. The county also was obligated to ensure that ISC always had “a custodial escort of the same sex” or maintained operational video and audio recording equipment for the entire transfer. When ISC transported Seelig, it did not have “a custodial escort of the same sex” or maintain operational video and audio recording equipment, according to the complaint.

Ramsey County commissioners unanimously approved the settlement Tuesday.

“Jennifer is a brave and strong woman who went through a terrible ordeal and has come through still fighting,” said J. Ashwin Madia, Seelig’s attorney, on Tuesday. “This settlement can’t undo what happened, but it at least allows for some closure so she can move forward with the next chapter of her life.”

Ramsey County officials declined to comment on the settlement Tuesday. A phone number connected to ISD appeared to no longer be in use.

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Authorities have arrested a Columbia Heights man in connection with the death of his 16-year-old son, Jordan “Manny” Collins Jr., whose body was found last month in a landfill.

Jordan Dupree Collins Sr., 38, was taken into custody Monday and is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, according to the Anoka County Jail roster. He had not been formally charged as of Tuesday afternoon.

Jordan “Manny” Collins Jr. (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Collins Jr. was last seen May 8 near the 4900 block of University Avenue in Columbia Heights.

“Since that day, my life has been turned upside down,” Collins’ mother, Ashley Berry, previously wrote on GoFundMe (gofund.me/0f54c11b). “Every moment of every day has been focused on finding him.”

Public safety officials found the body of Collins Jr. on June 28 at the Elk River Landfill.

Anoka County Sheriff Brad Wise said authorities think Collins Jr. went missing against his will. Video evidence led them to believe his body went from a dumpster in Columbia Heights to the Waste Management facility.

Jordan Dupree Collins Sr. (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)

Law enforcement began checking the landfill June 4. The FBI brought in its Laboratory Evidence Response Team Unit and the Technical Hazardous Response Unit from Virginia to help in the investigation. After nearly four weeks, a member of the search team discovered Collins Jr.’s body.

Collins Sr. has a criminal history in Minnesota dating back to 2008, when he was convicted of second-degree aggravated robbery in Ramsey County. His other convictions include misdemeanor theft in 2010 and 2012, misdemeanor DWI in 2016 and gross misdemeanor giving false information to police in 2017.

Police said Monday that the teen’s death remains under investigation.

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“Heat is an infrastructure problem, an economic problem, a policy problem, a community problem, and a health problem. It requires a coordinated approach on all these fronts.”

An open fire hydrant in Brooklyn during a heat wave. (Photo by Jeanmarie Evelly)

New York summers are hot. On average, the city annually weathers 17 days with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. But climate change is heating our planet at an alarming rate, making our city’s heat waves hotter, longer, and more frequent.

The New York City Panel on Climate Change projects that in the next 25 years we are likely to experience, on average, between 38 and 62 days above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. By 2080, in the worst-case scenario, we could see as many as 108.

The city’s built environment magnifies hot weather. This phenomenon, known as the urban heat island effect, increases urban temperatures from 3 degrees Fahrenheit up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than suburban and rural settings. The effect is particularly pronounced in densely built areas with limited green space and high concentrations of heat-absorbing surfaces. 

But heat exposure is unequal and highly inequitable. According to the city’s Heat Vulnerability Index, low-income communities of color bear disproportionate heat burdens in neighborhoods undermined by historical disinvestment and environmental injustice. 

Summer heat is a threat to public health: heat is the leading cause of climate- and weather-related death nationwide. Unlike natural disasters such as floods, heat hazards are invisible, making extreme heat an often underestimated “silent killer.” Around 580 New Yorkers die each summer due to heat-related causes, with Black New Yorkers twice as likely to succumb to heat mortality than white residents. 

Heat requires short-term emergency measures to protect residents during heat waves (heat response), and long-term strategies to cool a city (heat mitigation and prevention). In 2021 Miami-Dade County, Florida, officials appointed the world’s first chief heat officer (CHO) and Phoenix, Arizona, opened an office of Heat Response and Mitigation. That same year, officials in Athens, Greece, appointed the first CHO in Europe. Since then, the United Nations and half a dozen cities worldwide have followed suit. It is time for New York City to do the same.

In 2017 the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) published the Cool Neighborhoods NYC plan, a coordinating vision for citywide heat response. The plan deserves a “heat czar.” The plan’s mandate encompasses multi-agency programs with several critical responsibilities: coordinating heat mitigation across city agencies, ensuring equitable resource distribution, and integrating heat response into broader climate strategy.

But this plan is not the extent of the city’s heat responses. Our research shows that, in city government, there are currently over 30 specific heat-related programs in 10 departments and agencies under four deputy mayors. This work and the Cool Neighborhoods NYC plan are important, and deserve the greater coordination, dedicated focus, and advocacy of a CHO. It has been eight years since Cool Neighborhoods NYC debuted. It is time to update and turbocharge Cool Neighborhood NYC with a CHO who can align efforts across government, communities, and the private sector. 

A CHO would advise and advocate, maintaining focus on the issues of heat and heat resilience. With regulatory and budgetary power, a CHO could accelerate and expand the impact of existing programs. A CHO could coordinate across the city’s full network of existing plans to reduce silos, clarify responsibilities, prevent cross-purpose policies, and streamline financing. A CHO should further advocate for new urban heat mitigation through nature and design, not fossil fuels that add to the climate crisis. A CHO should also advocate for preserving urban spaces for communities; we all need to be able to bear the heat outside.

While NYC recently appointed its first Chief Climate Officer, Rohit T. Aggarwala, his Department of Environment Protection (DEP) is pursuing stormwater and coastal resilience as priorities. According to Aggarwala, “heat and hurricanes” keep him “up at night,” but the DEP has yet to appoint a deputy commissioner dedicated to heat. The City Council also recently failed to pass a bill to codify and improve New York’s cooling center program. Summer is here, and New Yorkers deserve a CHO.

Heat is an infrastructure problem, an economic problem, a policy problem, a community problem, and a health problem. It requires a coordinated approach on all these fronts. Extreme heat will increasingly impact public health but also energy and water use, urban vegetation, transportation, economic productivity, tourism, and workplace safety standards.

New York already has plans and programs in place. The city also has good data and spatial resolution on heat distribution and risk. But without clear management, without sustained advocacy, and without dedicated outreach—in other words, without a CHO—we risk failing to meet the size and scale of the challenge of hotter summers. 

Dr. Kara Murphy Schlichting is an associate professor of history at Queens College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, and a co-investigator of the Wellcome Discovery Award project Melting Metropolis: Everyday Histories of Heat and Health in London, New York, and Paris since 1945. Selassie Mawuko is a 2025 Queens College CUNY graduate and former Melting Metropolis research intern.

The post Opinion: It’s Time for NYC to Appoint a Heat Czar appeared first on City Limits.