ATHENS, Ga. — Slain Georgia nursing student Laken Riley “fought for her life” for a staggering 18 minutes before her skull was crushed by an illegal migrant, prosecutors said Friday — as opening statements got underway for the shocking murder case that was a cornerstone of the presidential election.

Riley, 22, was found viciously murdered on the University of Georgia campus on Feb. 22, shortly after her friend reported that she had not returned from her morning run.

On the first day of the bench trial, prosecutors claimed that suspect Jose Ibarra, 26 — an illegal migrant linked to the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua prison gang — smashed Riley’s head in and asphyxiated her when she resisted his sexual attack.

“He went hunting for females on the University of Georgia campus, and on his hunt, he encountered 22-year-old Laken Riley on her morning jog,” said prosecutor Sheila Ross, with Riley’s family in the gallery. 

“When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly.”

Riley — who had recently transferred to Augusta University after three years at UGA — “fought for her life,” the prosecutor told the emotionally charged courtroom.

Riley struggled with Ibarra for nearly 20 minutes, from 9:10 a.m. until her heart stopped at 9:28 a.m., according to heart rate readings and data from her GPS running watch, Ross said.

“She fought for her dignity, and in that fight, she caused this defendant to leave forensic evidence behind. She also marked her killer for the entire world to see,” Ross said.

“Her encounter with him was long. Her fight with him was fierce.”

After lunch, the judge was shown photos of Ibarra’s scratch injuries that were taken the day after Riley’s murder.

The images showed cuts on his hands, wrists and arms. Riley had Ibarra’s DNA under her fingernails, prosecutors said.

Riley also managed to call 911 in her final moments, and the eerie audio was played in court.

Only a male voice was heard on the brief, muffled audio before the operator’s voice can be heard searching for the caller.

“Clark County 911. Hello, Clark County 911. Can anyone hear me?” the operator says.

The call ended at 9:12, and the operator tried to call back but received no answer, Ross explained.

Riley’s mother, Allyson Phillips, sobbed as the audio played.

Ibarra, according to prosecutors, left his fingerprint behind when he ended the call — and cut off his would-be victim’s cry for help.

Riley’s mother and sister began openly crying when the state displayed surveillance photos of the young woman leaving for her jog shortly before she was attacked.

Riley’s family did not return to court after the lunch break, having weathered a morning of increasingly brutal information that included crime scene footage of Riley’s battered, bruised body.

Ibarra, meanwhile, slouched in his seat while the trial was translated for him through headphones.

Just before disturbing body cam footage taken from the cop who found Riley’s lifeless body was about to be played for the courtroom, Judge H. Patrick Haggard — who is deciding the trial, rather than a jury — warned everyone that they could leave if the footage would be too upsetting.

“I suspect what we are about to see is the victim’s body,” Haggard said. “I’m going to offer for anyone that’s here to step out if you want to do that. I’ll pause in order to allow you to do that.”

Riley’s mother and a few other supporters walked out of the courtroom and at points Riley’s stepdad covered his eyes during the footage, showing an officer finding her body 50 feet off of a trail.

Sgt. Kenneth Maxwell — with the UGA Police Department — testified that Riley’s torso was exposed, with her shirt up above her chest. 

The video showed Maxwell’s attempts at reviving her with CPR failing.

“I’m not getting any pulse. She’s stiff,” Maxwell can be heard saying in the video. “Looks like blunt force trauma to the head.”

The video also showed a gash in Riley’s skull.

The first two witnesses called by prosecutors were two of Riley’s three roommates at the time who testified about how they grew concerned about her whereabouts when they noticed her iPhone shared location marker stopped moving at one point during her run that morning.

Roommate Sofia Magana grabbed her dog, Champ, and stumbled across a white AirPod in an area of a nearby trail which Champ was “fixated on.” 

“He was pulling, and when I looked over I noticed a white AirPod,” Magana said on the stand.

Magana said she figured it was Riley’s AirPod because “she always had a little bit more wax on her AirPods so I noticed the ear wax.”

Roommate Lily Steiner said she started getting worried after she didn’t see Riley sitting in her chair inside their home.

“Our house was like a little family. We called our house a little family. We did everything together,” said Steiner, 22.

“Laken brought a sense of joy to our lives that has been missing ever since,” she said on the stand, at times, wiping away tears.

Both of the roommates searched for Riley that morning on the trail.

A third roommate, Connolly Huth, 22, hung out with Riley before she left for her run and before Huth left for college classes that morning — which was the last time she ever spoke to her, an emotional Huth said from the witness stand.

Around 11:15 that morning, Huth got a call from Riley’s sister asking if she’d heard from her roommate.

“I immediately went into a panic,” Huth testified. 

Then Huth called Riley’s cell. “It rang and rang and went to voicemail,” Huth said.

Huth then met up with roommate Magana and they met with the police she said.

At one point, Huth cried as a video she took of Riley doing jumping jacks was played in court.

Ibarra’s arrest on Feb. 23 sparked a nationwide frenzy about violent crime among migrants and border security — with President-Elect Donald Trump frequently citing Riley by name when advocating for his hard-line immigration policies.

The case against Ibarra, whose family has connections to the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, grabbed the national spotlight because Ibarra was released by immigration authorities after illegally entering the US through El Paso, Texas, because of a lack of space.

He was arrested in the Big Apple in August 2023 for illegally riding a gas-powered moped with a 5-year-old on the back without a helmet or seatbelt but was again released.

Ibarra then fled to Georgia to join his brother, Diego, one of his family members with ties to the dangerous gang, where he lives.

The brothers were arrested in Georgia for allegedly stealing from a Walmart in September 2023.

After his arrest in February, Ibarra, 26, pleaded not guilty to charges of malice murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault and related crimes. He faces up to life in prison without parole if convicted.

On Tuesday, Ibarra waived his right to a trial by 12 of his peers, instead opting to have the case decided by Haggard.

Ibarra’s defense team lost a bid earlier this month to delay the trial and to bar evidence including DNA, fingerprints and cellphone data on the grounds that they were allegedly wrongfully collected by investigators and that the defense needed more time to review the case.

On Friday, defense attorney Dustin Kirby delivered less than 10 minutes of opening statements, focusing on the fact that the prosecution’s case was supposedly grounded in “circumstantial” evidence.

“The evidence in this case is very good that Laken Riley was murdered,” Kirby said. “The evidence that Jose Ibarra killed Laken Riley is circumstantial.”

Kirby said the judge shouldn’t accept the conclusions surrounding the DNA, fingerprints and other evidence.

“Upon a closer look … the evidence that links Mr. Ibarra to that event is lacking,” Kirby said.

For instance, Kirby called into question the thumbprint left on Riley’s phone that prosecutors say belonged to Ibarra. Ibarra was wearing black latex gloves but prosecutors say there were several holes in the gloves, including one on his thumb that allowed his fingerprint to be left behind.

“The hole in the glove would not have left this mark,” Kirby said.

The defense attorney also focused on the fact that a black Adidas hat that the suspect was seen in surveillance footage with was worn by Ibarra’s brother Diego after the crime. Kirby seemed to raise the fact simply to bring in reasonable doubt, but the lawyer didn’t go as far as to offer an alternate suspect.

In total, nine witnesses were called by the prosecution including a slew of law enforcement agents who were involved in the investigation. Trial will pick back up again Monday morning.