The undocumented immigrant charged with the murder of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts wants to have his trial moved to a county where there’s more minority representation.

Attorneys for 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera filed a motion on Friday arguing that the Mexican national should be tried outside of Iowa’s Poweshiek County because existing bias there makes it likely that “a fair and impartial trial cannot be preserved with a jury selected from that county,” the Des Moines Register reported.

Rivera, a former farmhand, was charged with first-degree murder in the abduction and stabbing death of 20-year-old Tibbetts.

The rising sophomore was last seen jogging through her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa – about 70 miles east of Des Moines – on July 18.

She was reported missing the next day when she didn’t show up to her job at a daycare center.

Investigators recovered her body roughly a month later in a cornfield.

Rivera’s murder trial is slated to begin Sept. 3 at Poweshiek County Courthouse in Montezuma.

Lawyers for the murder suspect said they spoke with potential witnesses, including Latinos, who expressed fear about testifying or cooperating in the investigation if the trial were to stay in Poweshiek County, according to the Des Moines Register.

“These individuals fear reprisals from locals who hold strong opinions concerning Latinos following [Rivera] being charged,” the attorneys wrote.

The motion went on to say: “Without venue where a minority population is substantially represented, [Rivera] cannot be fairly tried and any jury pool chosen will have to be stricken.”