The man suspected of killing an Alabama teen accused cops of fabricating evidence against him during Wednesday’s court hearing.
WLTZ reported that Ibraheem Yazeed, 30, denied killing Aniah Blanchard, 19, after he was formally charged with two counts of capital murder. Yazeed is accused of fatally shooting Blanchard after abducting her from an Auburn convenience store on October 23.
“Ya’ll have no video, no audio of me shooting anyone. That’s what I’m trying to see how ya’ll gonna bind me over on hearsay but ya’ll ain’t present no evidence then now this a whole different statement,” Yazeed he told the court.
Blanchard’s body was discovered on November 25 in a wooded area off Highway 80 in Macon County.
Yazeed, 30, was reportedly caught on the convenience store’s surveillance cameras around the time of Blanchard’s disappearance. A witness at the store that night claimed he saw Yazeed force the teen into her car. He was allegedly filmed at another store exiting the passenger side of Blanchard’s vehicle and eventually re-entering the car.
Two days after her disappearance, Blanchard’s car was found damaged and covered in her blood at an apartment complex in Montgomery. Reports indicated that Yazeed and a second kidnapping suspect, Antwon Fisher, 35, live in Montgomery.
Authorities had previously said the amount of blood discovered in Blanchard’s car suggested she had suffered a life-threatening injury. Earlier this week, Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes revealed that Blanchard died of a gunshot wound, but declined to disclose additional details regarding her murder.
While authorities have taken Yazeed’s DNA, they have not revealed how it relates to this investigation.
Fisher, who was arrested on first-degree kidnapping charges on November 22, allegedly provided Yazeed with transportation and destroyed evidence related to the criminal investigation.
A third man, David Johnson Jr., 63, was arrested on November 25 for allegedly hindering prosecution. He was accused of lying to police about his son driving Yazeed from Alabama to Florida, where Yazeed was arrested on November 7.
At the time of Blanchard’s disappearance, Yazeed was out on bail on attempted murder charges — despite having a lengthy criminal history which includes arrests for kidnapping and robbery. His bond in that case was revoked druing a Thursday hearing in Montgomery, according to the Montgomery Advertiser, and the judge denied bail in the Blanchard case. Fisher has a 2005 felony murder conviction for fatally shooting a woman during a drug deal in Montgomery.
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[Featured image: Aniah Blanchard/Facebook; Ibraheem Yazeed/Montgomery County Detention Facility]
