A judge has scheduled a January trial for a 22-year-old Iowa drifter charged with killing a top amateur golfer from Spain.
District Judge Bethan Currie ruled Monday that Collin Richards will stand trial Jan. 15 for first-degree murder in the death of Iowa State University student Celia Barquin Arozamena.
Richards entered a written not guilty plea Monday morning and waived his right to a speedy trial. The filing canceled an in-person arraignment hearing that had been scheduled for later Monday.
Investigators say Richards attacked Barquin on Sept. 17 while she was playing a round at a public course in Ames, near the university campus. Her body was found in a pond on the course riddled with stab wounds.
Richards faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Since 2014, Richards had been charged with abusing a girlfriend, stealing a pickup truck, using a baseball bat to smash a car window and burglarizing a gas station. In one case, the Iowa State Patrol seized a long knife from him during a traffic stop. In another, he threatened to return to a convenience store to shoot clerks who caught him shoplifting.
Barquin, a native of Puente San Miguel, Spain, was finishing her civil engineering degree this semester after exhausting her playing eligibility in 2017-18, according to the university. She was one of Iowa State’s most accomplished golfers and a bright engineering student. This year, Barquin won the Big 12 championship and an amateur tournament in Europe and competed in the U.S. Women’s Open Championship.