An Alabama jury has commenced deliberations in the case of Ibraheem Yazeed, who stands accused of the 2019 kidnapping and murder of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard.
Prosecutors have urged the jury to convict Yazeed on two murder charges: one for murder during a kidnapping and another for murder during a robbery, according to WBRC.
Aniah Blanchard, a student at Southern Union State Community College and the stepdaughter of UFC fighter Walt Harris, disappeared from a convenience store in Auburn on October 23, 2019, as highlighted by CrimeOnline. Her car was discovered two days later in Montgomery, damaged and containing a significant amount of blood on the passenger side.
Her body was discovered a month later in a wooded region in Macon County, where it was revealed that she had been fatally shot.
At the time of the incident, Yazeed was out on bond for attempted murder charges. He was allegedly seen entering Blanchard’s vehicle at the convenience store, leading to charges for her death.
The tragic events surrounding Blanchard’s abduction and murder spurred the Alabama legislature to enact “Aniah’s Law.” This law permits judges to deny bond for crimes beyond just capital murder, expanding to include charges such as murder, rape, sodomy, domestic violence, human trafficking, burglary, arson, and robbery.
Prosecutors said during the trial that they couldn’t prove that Blanchard didn’t allow Yazeed into her car voluntarily but that the blood and bullet casing found in the car indicated that at some point, she no longer consented to his presence. On the robbery charge, prosecutors say he was seen by eyewitnesses with Blanchard’s vehicle and her phone was never recovered.
Yazeed’s defense argued that all the state’s evidence is circumstantial with nothing tying him direction to the kidnapping and murder.
A third murder charge was dropped before closing arguments began, WAKA reported.
