The man who allegedly kidnapped and murdered college student Aniah Blanchard, 19, faces a new criminal case. Ibraheem Yazeed, 30, allegedly fought with guards at the Lee County Jail in Alabama, according to Opelika-Auburn News. The defendant is charged with second-degree assault.
Authorities claim Yazeed refused to enter his cell after taking a shower. Things escalated to one of the four corrections officers tasing him, officials said. Yazeed allegedly kept refusing to enter the cell, and he instead began kicking and striking at the authorities. Officials tased him a few more times, and hit him with their batons. The defendant allegedly bit the lower left leg of a corrections officer who arrived.
A preliminary hearing in this new case is set for May 27.
Aniah Blanchard
Yazeed was in jail for allegedly murdering Blanchard, a student at Southern Union State Community College. He allegedly kidnapped her from a convenience store, and forced her into her car in October. Her vehicle was found two days later, and she was later found dead several feet into a woodline in Macon County.
According to authorities, a witness told them that he saw a man in camo (Yazeed) force a woman (Blanchard) into a vehicle. He had been staying at a hotel next door, but didn’t report it.
“He went back to the room and told his girlfriend — possibly wife — what he had saw and she told him that it was none of his business and to stay out of it,” Auburn police detective Josh Mixon testified according to the outlet. The officer said that he thought the witness was remorseful for now stepping forward sooner. “He had recently lost a child in October due to a miscarriage which was a girl so he was definitely remorseful for not coming forward sooner.”
Another man, 35-year-old Antwain “Squirmy” Fisher, was charged with kidnapping, but that charge was dropped.
“Subsequent to Antwon ‘Squirmy’ Fisher’s arrest, it was determined that Mr. Fisher’s conduct did not rise to the level of accomplice liability as was originally charged and as is required under Alabama law,” Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes said last December. “Therefore, based on legal and jurisdictional grounds, we have requested Mr. Fisher’s charge for kidnapping — first degree be dismissed.”
A third defendant, David Johnson Jr., was arrested for allegedly hindering prosecution.
[Image via Auburn Police Department]
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