Sentencing of Mollie Tibbetts' convicted killer delayed after bombshell by defense

Judge delays sentencing for Mollie Tibbetts killer after bombshell claim by defense

A judge has delayed the sentencing of a man convicted of murdering University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts after defense attorneys filed court documents accusing prosecutors of failing to disclose that police were investigating a sex trafficking "trap house" involving a man linked to a missing 11-year-old boy. Instead of sentencing Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who was expected to receive life in prison without the possibility of parole, Judge Joel Yates will hold a hearing on Thursday on a defense motion to set aside the verdict and schedule a new trial. A jury convicted Bahena Rivera, a 27-year-old Mexican national farmworker, in May of first-degree murder in the 2018 abduction and killing of the 20-year-old student. On Tuesday, Bahena Rivera's attorneys filed a motion, alleging prosecutors failed to disclose a separate investigation was occurring at the time of Tibbetts' disappearance involving a man allegedly operating a sex trafficking "trap house" in New Sharon, Iowa, 27 miles from Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts went missing on July 18, 2018.