Two men found guilty of stabbing footballer to death

Two men have been found guilty of murdering footballer Cody Fisher, who was stabbed to death inside a Birmingham nightclub on Boxing Day in 2022.

- RICH BOOTH

Remy Gordon and Kami Carpenter had blamed each other for stabbing the 23-year-old former Birmingham City academy player, who died at the scene from a chest wound. A 10-week trial was told Mr Fisher was attacked with a weapon smuggled through security into Digbeth’s Crane nightclub before a preplanned “act of retribution” for a minor incident two days earlier.

Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court were told Gordon, of Cofton Park Drive, Birmingham, orchestrated the “awful revenge” after Mr Fisher made brief “unavoidable” contact with his back while leaving a club in Solihull on Christmas Eve.

Gordon, 23, was also found guilty of affray, while 22-year-old Carpenter, who was found guilty of murder by a majority of 10 to one, was found not guilty of the same charge at the Crane, relating to an attack on a friend of Mr Fisher. Fellow defendant Reegan Anderson, 19, of no fixed address, was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of an alternative charge of manslaughter but guilty of affray and was bailed until a sentencing hearing after Easter.

Some family members in the public gallery cried and stormed out of the courtroom upon hearing the verdicts, which were delivered yesterday afternoon after jurors deliberated for more than 28 hours.

Opening the case against the trio in January, prosecutor Michael Duck KC told jurors: “The prosecution say that these three were part of a joint attack in which each either had or knew of the existence of knives.” Mr Fisher was stabbed in the chest, penetrating a valve in his heart, and was pronounced dead at the scene, the court heard, while a close friend of the victim was chased and kicked but managed to get to his feet and escape.