(Editor’s note: This story first published at the Montgomery Advertiser, part of the USA TODAY Network.)
The case against Antwain Fisher, charged with kidnapping in the disappearance and death of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard, has been dropped.
Less than 24 hours before Fisher was to appear in court for a preliminary hearing, Lee County Assistant District Attorney Garrett Saucer filed a motion to dismiss the case.
In the motion, Saucer lays out that Fisher was charged as an accomplice to Ibraheem Yazeed, who has been charged with two counts of capital murder since Blanchard’s body was discovered. Fisher was alleged to have provided transportation to Yazeed and disposed of evidence in the case.
“The investigation has since revealed that Fisher was not present during the commission of the principal offense,” according to the motion. “Fisher’s conduct is akin to that of a common-law ‘accessory after the fact’ which has been made a separate offense entirely.”
Saucer also wrote that Fisher’s involvement in the case did not take place in Lee County which would make the issue another county’s jurisdiction.
Saucer also wrote that Fisher’s involvement in the case did not take place in Lee County which would make the issue another county’s jurisdiction.
Judge Russell Bush granted the motion about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The case was dismissed “with prejudice” which means the same charge cannot be filed against Fisher in this case in Lee County.
Law enforcement spent over a month searching for Blanchard, the stepdaughter of UFC heavyweight Walt Harris, before her remains were discovered off the side of a rural highway in Macon County, between where she was last seen in Auburn and where her car was found in Montgomery.
The month-long investigation led law enforcement on a manhunt for one suspect — Ibraheem Yazeed — and ultimately ended with three people charged.
Blanchard, a student at Southern Union State Community College, was last seen on video surveillance footage at a convenience store on Oct. 23. The next day her family reported her missing.
Her car was recovered at a Montgomery apartment complex, 55 miles west of her last known location, a few days later, and contained evidence of “a life-threatening amount of blood.”
A little more than a month after Blanchard was seen last, law enforcement found human remains identified as Blanchard’s shortly after Fisher was brought in for a first-appearance on a charge of first-degree kidnapping in connection to the case.
A judge later granted a bond for Fisher, a motion filed by his attorney that was not challenged by prosecutors.
David Lee Johnson Jr., 63, was charged with hindering prosecution in connection to the case the same day Blanchard’s remains were discovered.
According to Yazeed’s court documents on two capital murder charges, he allegedly told a witness that he shot a girl who ‘went for the gun.’
Case dropped against Antwain Fisher in Aniah Blanchard's kidnapping
