Mexican Farmworker Found Guilty Of Killing Iowa Student Mollie Tibbetts Whose Body Was Hidden in Cornfield

Mexican farmworker Cristhian Bahena Rivera was found guilty by an Iowa jury on Friday of killing college student Mollie Tibbetts three years ago. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole following the guilty verdict.

Prosecutor said that the Mexican farmworker was enraged after Tibbetts rejected his advances, according to a Reuters report.

The Mexican farmworker reportedly had entered the United States illegally and was arrested about a month after Tibbetts' disappearance. Police said they identified him from a security video taken outside a Brooklyn house near where the Iowa college student was last seen running.

Police interrogated Rivera for about 11 hours. The Mexican farmworker then led them to Tibbetts' body in a cornfield. Authorities found that Mollie Tibbetts had been stabbed nine to 12 times.

The case had gained traction in 2018 after former U.S. President Donald Trump cited Rivera's case as he rallied against illegal immigration. In a recorded speech posted on Twitter at the time, Trump said that Rivera came from Mexico illegally and killed the Iowa college student.

Trump was building a border wall to curb the rising number of illegal migrants crossing the U.S. The former president had also blamed U.S. immigration laws for the death of Mollie Tibbetts.

Tibbetts' family earlier asked politicians not to use the 20-year-old college student's death to advance a cause that she opposed.

The victim's father, Rob Tibbetts, wrote in Des Moines Register, saying that it does not appropriate his daughter's soul in pushing for views she believed were racist.

Mollie Tibbetts' Case

Cristhian Bahena Rivera told investigators that he spotted Mollie Tibbetts jogging near Middle and Boundary streets. He then slowed down and started following her in his black Chevrolet Malibu, according to a Crime Online report.

The Mexican farmworker had gotten out of the vehicle and started following the Iowa college student by foot. He then started jogging beside her.

Tibbetts then told the 26-year-old suspect that she would call 911 and pulled out her phone. That was when Rivera said he became upset.

He said that he blacked out at the threat, which he often did when becoming too angry, according to investigators involved in the case.

The Mexican farmworker then said that he remembered waking up inside his car and parked at a rural intersection. He then drove into a driveway of a cornfield.

Rivera noted that he realized he had placed the victim inside his truck when he noticed that Tibbetts' earpiece from her earbuds was lying on his lap.

According to the affidavit, the Mexican farmworker checked the trunk and found Tibbetts inside, with one side of her head bloodied. The suspect then pulled the Iowa college student out of the truck and dragged her into a secluded area in the woods.

Cristhian Bahena Rivera had changed his story when he took the stand, claiming that two armed men kidnapped him and forced Mollie Tibbetts into the trunk of his car.

But prosecutors had dismissed the story and said it was inconsistent with the evidence, BBC News reported. It took seven hours over two days for jurors in Davenport, Iowa to deliberate before returning with a guilty verdict.

WATCH: Missing Iowa Student Mollie Tibbetts Found Dead, Undocumented Immigrant Confesses - From TODAY