The man charged in the disappearance of Aniah Blanchard wants to transfer to the Montgomery County jail because he has friends there who helped him evade prosecution in the past, a Lee County prosecutor wrote.

Ibraheem Yazeed’s attorney, Elijah Beaver, on Thursday filed a motion asking that his client be granted bail, stating Yazeed had received death threats from fellow inmates at the Lee County jail. As a result, Yazeed has been placed in solitary confinement, Beaver wrote.

“If he is able to make bond in this case, he would return to jail in Montgomery County, Alabama, where no such security concerns have been identified,” Beaver wrote.

Beaver also argued that prosecutors had wrongly described Yazeed as having an “extensive history of violent criminal offenses.”

“Mr. Yazeed instead has a history of being wrongly accused of serious offenses by the State and held in jail for long periods of time on insufficient evidence, later to be released on insufficient evidence,” Beaver wrote.

Lee County District Attorney Brandon Hughes on Friday filed his strongly-worded response to the motion, reiterating that Yazeed was already out on bond for kidnapping when Blanchard disappeared.

“The defendant was afforded bond and allowed to remain free by the least restrictive means possible and he rewarded Montgomery County’s allowance for bond by coming to Lee County and kidnapping Aniah Blanchard,’’ the district attorney wrote.

Hughes went on to say that there is no evidence Yazeed has been threatened while in the Lee County Jail and noted that jail officials have addressed the purported threats by place him in protective custody.

Yazeed, Hughes wrote, is charged with a crime in Lee County and “the interests of justice demand he remain here to answer for it.”

“Montgomery County has had their opportunity to deal with the defendant and that has resulted in him being free to come to Lee County and commit yet another violent criminal offense,’’ Hughes wrote. “The state believes he wants to get back to Montgomery because that is where he has friends and where he has been allowed to evade prosecution.”

At the time of his arrest in Blanchard’s disappearance, Yazeed was out on $280,000 bond on two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery and one count of attempted murder in January 2019 incident in Montgomery.

According to court records, two male victims – one of them 77-years-old - were held against their will in a hotel room in January 2019 on the 1200 block of Eastern Boulevard. The older man was beaten until “unconscious, unresponsive, severely injured and near death” and robbed of a Rolex, rifle, handguns, wallet, bank card, clothing and unknown amount of currency. The other man was also beaten and robbed of at least $40.

In July 2017, Yazeed was arrested by Cass County sheriff’s deputies in Missouri on an arrest warrant for aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

Yazeed also previously pleaded guilty to felony drug possession in 2015 and received a 13-month suspended sentence. In 2012, he was charged with attempted murder after authorities said he rammed his car into a Montgomery police vehicle. A grand jury declined to indict him on those charges as well.

The previous year – 2011 - Yazeed was charged with two counts of robbery after a man was robbed of more than $2,000, a cell phone and a Gucci watch. A grand jury also declined to indict him on those charges.

According to Blanchard’s family, Yazeed has not provided police any leads into Blanchard’s whereabouts. His preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 20. A gag order has been issued in the case, therefore lawyers and police are not allowed to discuss any aspect of Blanchard’s disappearance or Yazeed’s arrest, including where the investigation and search for Blanchard stands.

Lee County District Judge Russell Bush on Friday said he would address the attorneys’ motions on Nov. 20 at the same time Yazeed is set to have his preliminary hearing.

According to the affidavit by Auburn police Det. Josh Mixon, Blanchard was last seen by a family member the evening of Oct. 23 at a residence in the 1000 block of Alan Avenue in Auburn.

The Southern Union College student from Homewood was officially reported missing Thursday, Oct. 24.

She last communicated with a friend late on the night of Oct. 23. Police said her vehicle was seen in the early-morning hours of Oct. 24 along South College Street.

Police recovered the teen’s black 2017 Honda CRV from an apartment complex on the 6100 block of Boardwalk Boulevard in Montgomery around 6:15 p.m. the following evening, which was Friday. A citizen reported the vehicle to police.

Charging documents against Yazeed state that blood evidence was discovered in the passenger’s compartment of the vehicle and was “indicative of someone suffering a life-threatening injury.” The evidence was submitted to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences and confirmed to be that of Blanchard.

Video evidence from the convenience store at 1599 South College Street placed both Blanchard and Yazeed at the store during the same time. “This was the last time she was seen,” Mixon wrote. A witness later identified Yazeed as the individual he saw forcing Blanchard into a vehicle against her will.

There is $105,000 in reward money for information in her disappearance. Anyone with information about Blanchard’s disappearance or how the vehicle was damaged, is asked to call police at 334-501-3140, the anonymous tip line at 334-246-1391 or the 24-hour non-emergency number at 334-501-3100. Tips to Crime Stoppers can be made through the 24-hour tip line at 215-STOP (7867), through the P3-tips app, on the web at www.215STOP.com or via the Central Alabama Crime Stoppers Facebook page.