Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the indictment of Ibraheem Yazeed on three counts of capital murder for the death of Aniah Haley Blanchard.
Blanchard was a college student studying at Southern Union. Aniah was reported missing in Auburn on October 24, 2019, and her body was discovered on November 25, 2019, in a wooded area in Macon County. Yazeed, age 32, of Montgomery, was served the indictment Tuesday in the Lee County jail, where he is currently being held without bond.
Attorney General Marshall’s office presented evidence to a Macon County grand jury on November 4, 2022, resulting in Yazeed’s indictment on three counts of capital murder on Monday.
The indictment charges Yazeed with one count of capital murder during a kidnapping in the first degree, one count of capital murder during robbery in the first degree, and one count of capital murder involving a victim in a vehicle.
The indictment charges Yazeed with intentionally causing the death of Blanchard by shooting her with a gun during the course of abducting her and robbing her of a vehicle and cell phone. The indictment also charges Yazeed intentionally caused Blanchard’s death while she was inside her vehicle, a 2017 Honda CR-V.
If convicted, Yazeed could face the death penalty or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole for each of the three charges of capital murder.
Yazeed had already been charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, and robbery but was out on bond awaiting trial when he allegedly abducted and murdered Blanchard. Authorities allege that Blanchard was not the first person that Yazeed has murdered.
Due to the horrible crime, the voters of Alabama recently ratified a constitutional amendment allowing district attorneys to request that judges deny bail for dangerous villains. Marshall campaigned hard for the ratification of Amendment One – which was named Aniah’s Law in memory of Blanchard. The Blanchard family was instrumental in the campaign to pass the Amendment to the Alabama Constitution of 1901.
The case is being prosecuted by Attorney General Marshall’s Criminal Trials Division. Marshall thanked local and state law enforcement agencies, especially the Auburn Police Department, Montgomery Police Department, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Lee and Macon County Sheriff’s Offices, for their expert work in investigating this case, as well as both the Lee and Macon County District Attorneys’ Offices.
Yazeed has merely been indicted. He will still have his day in court and the opportunity to present a defense. Under the American justice system, everyone is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty before a jury of their peers.
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