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Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, pleaded not guilty to a charge of first degree murder through a translator in a county court in Poweshiek.
His lawyer, Chad Frese, told the court that his client had a "limited understanding of English and a limited education".
Tibbetts disappeared in July after going out in the evening in Brooklyn, Iowa, and his disappearance provoked much research.
Bahena Rivera, who confessed to having followed her as she ran down a country road, drove last month the authorities on the ground where a body presumed to be his was buried under corn stalks. , officials said.
A preliminary report of the autopsy on Tibbetts' body determined that his death was a "homicide resulting from multiple injuries caused by a live force," said the Iowa State Medical Examiner. .
Rivera, a Mexican national who went illegally to the United States, responded "yes" Wednesday by agreeing to assert his right to a trial within 90 days. His trial is set for April 16, 2019.
After the hearing, Bahena Rivera spoke briefly with her translator and her lawyer. Wearing a black and white striped prison outfit, he looked around the audience hall while he was being driven after his appearance.
At a previous hearing, another defense lawyer, Allan Richards, stated that Bahena Rivera had arrived in the United States as a minor, was employed in the community and had no criminal record. .
Rivera had been working for four years at Yarrabee Farms, a nearby dairy farm.
According to Dane Lang, co-owner and director of Yarrabee Farms, Bahena Rivera provided an identity and social security card that was verified through the verification system of the Social Security Administration.
But it was false forms of identity that did not identify him as Rivera.
"What we have learned in the last 24 hours is that our employee was not what he said he was," Lang said.
On Wednesday, the court confirmed that "the exact and exact name" of Rivera was Cristhian Bahena Rivera.
Lang said that Bahena Rivera was a regular employee who came to work on time and got along with her colleagues. Neither Lang nor his employees noticed anything suspicious about Rivera's behavior after Tibbetts disappeared, he added.
Yarrabee Farms is owned in part by Craig Lang, a prominent Republican from Iowa, who ran for Iowa's secretary's office this summer.
His father said Tibbetts, 20, was studying psychology at the University of Iowa and wanted to get a doctorate and write books. Its disappearance on July 18 triggered an exhaustive search that brought hundreds of tracks, but no indication as to its location.
The authorities had been looking for Tibbetts for about a month when they found a home surveillance video showing a car following a woman while she was jogging.
In an affidavit, Bahena Rivera said he remembered being angry with Tibbetts, but what happened later was "stuck" by his memory. When he came to him, he realized that he had put a bleeding Tibbetts in his trunk, then he carried it to a cornfield and left it there, the affidavit says.
He then led the authorities to a cornfield where they found a body covered with corn leaves. Tibbetts' clothing was also found at the scene.
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