The gruesome, heartbreaking ordeal of Aniah Blanchard, stepdaughter
of former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Walt Harris,
is about to come to a close.
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.