By Joshua Huff, sports editor
LEE COUNTY — The man charged with the disappearance of Aniah Blanchard will remain behind bars without bond.
Ibraheem Yazeed, who was apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Pensacola, Florida, this past Thursday, was denied bond after Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes requested that Yazeed be held because of a past history of violent crimes and because he poses a flight risk.
In a Sunday court hearing, Lee County District Judge Russell Bush granted Hughes’ request that Yazeed be denied bond. The judge also issued a gag order, which prohibits lawyers and witnesses from making any statements to the media.
Yazeed was already awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping after a January 2019 incident in which two male victims were held against their will in a hotel room in Montgomery. One of the victims was 77 years old. That man was beaten to the point of near death and robbed. In 2017, Yazeed was arrested in Missouri on a warrant for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to felony drug possession and was sent to prison for 13 months. In 2012, he was charged with attempted murder after ramming his car into a police vehicle after he fled from two Montgomery officers. Yazeed plowed into their squad car “as the officers exited their vehicle in an attempt to kill the officers,” a court affidavit said.
He spent months in the county jail before a grand jury determined there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
Yazeed was out on bond at the time of Blanchard’s disappearance.
“It’s very concerning to know that someone who has committed that sort of crime was out and in our community,” Auburn Police Chief Paul Register said to reporters at a news conference. “We think this is someone who should be in custody.”
