Outside Source
Earlier in March, the trial of Ibraheem Yazeed, the man suspected of killing Blanchard in 2019, began. On Thursday afternoon, the jury came back with two verdicts of guilty for the charges of murder and felony murder—that is, the unlawful killing of a person during the commission of a felony like kidnapping or robbery. Both Class A felonies come with sentences no less than 10 years imprisonment with a maximum of life in prison. The verdict of capital murder, which would have made Yazeed eligible for the death penalty in Alabama, was not guilty.
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The sentencing hearing will take place on May 7—Yazeed has six weeks to appeal the verdict—and the prosecutors are seeking life in prison without the possibility of parole. Per local outlet WSFA, Yazeed elected not to testify during the trial, and his defense rested without calling a witness.
Aniah deserves justice, as does her family
Attorney General Steve Marshall, who was involved in the prosecution of the case, released a short statement after the verdict was announced. Marshall, who had initially sought the death penalty, expressed some frustration that he was found not guilty on that charge, but vowed to push for a maximum allowable sentence.
“Today, a Macon County jury returned a murder verdict in the case of Aniah Blanchard,” Marshall wrote. “Although we are disappointed that this outcome does not allow for the death penalty, we intend to seek the maximum sentence allowed by law when the defendant is sentence on May 7th. I pledge to do everything in my power to ensure that Ibraheem Yazeed spends the rest of his life in prison. I believe that is what justice demands in this case. Aniah deserves it, as does her family.”
In October 2019, Blanchard went missing, with surveillance footage from the convenience store she stopped at showing both her and Yazeed in the store at the same time. Witness testimony later stated that Yazeed was seen forcing Blanchard into his car, where he later shot her in the abdomen and drove her out to the woods. Her body was retrieved the following month, where she was found to have been shot in the head and buried.
Blanchard’s death inspired Alabama to amend its constitution in 2022 to create Aniah’s Law, as Yazeed was briefly released on bail after being charged with kidnapping. The law allows for prosecutors to request for judges to deny bail and not allow those charged with violent felonies to be released on their own recognizance until trial. The reasoning was to protect the public from those individuals from potentially harming others before their trials.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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