The killers of 23-year-old Cody Fisher have been sentenced to life imprisonment at Birmingham Crown Court today.
23-year-old Remy Gordon and 22-year-old Kami Carpenter will serve a minimum of 26 and 25 years respectively after they were both found guilty of murdering the semi-professional footballer and PE teacher in a nightclub on Boxing Day 2022.
A third defendant, Reagan Anderson, was found not guilty of murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter but was found guilty of affray.
He was sentenced to 18 months detention but was released on license having already spent 15 months in police custody.
Kami Carpenter and Remy Gordon have been sentenced to life
West Midlands Police
Sentencing Gordon and Carpenter, His Honour Judge Paul Farrer KC said: "Cody Fisher was a son, a brother, and committed partner to his girlfriend.
"He was a talented athlete who loved teaching children."
During the sentencing, the court heard how Carpenter stabbed Cody Fisher with a zombie knife.
Judge Farrer KC said: "The choice of weapon used leads me to conclude you intended to kill."
Fisher was stabbed in the chest in what the court heard was a pre-planned “act of retribution” after he made “unavoidable” contact with Gordon’s back two days prior on Christmas Eve.
Cody Fisher was out with friends that night and CCTV footage released by West Midlands Police shows the two in conversation. The court heard Fisher believed he had done nothing wrong and was threatened with violence by Gordon.
After the confrontation, Remy Gordon found a picture of him online and asked his friends to help identify him.
Messaging a group chat only 45 minutes after the incident, Gordon says he’s “due to shank him up”.
Prosecutor Michael Duck KC told jurors during the trial: “It’s plain from evidence which has been obtained that rather than Mr Gordon simply acknowledging there had been no malice… he decided to challenge Cody Fisher.
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Cody Fisher was killed on Boxing Day in 2022
Chris Jepson/Bromsgrove Sporting FC via PA
“He felt rather embarrassed and frustrated that he had been unable to intimidate a member of the public.”
On Boxing Day, Cody Fisher arrived at The Crane nightclub with his girlfriend and friends. A few hours later, his soon-to-be killers, Gordon and Carpenter, snuck a weapon through security.
During the trial, jurors were shown CCTV of the three defendants arriving at the Crane club and copies of messages sent between Gordon and Carpenter in the hours before they arrived there.
Part of the conversation – alleged to show Gordon’s “sinister intention” - said he was “looking to snuff someone”.
Mr Duck said: “Mr Gordon was intending to wear a disguise.
“He was debating which weapons to take into the premises, and he was intending to revisit the events of Christmas Eve with Mr Fisher.”
Just before midnight, violence broke out on the dance floor and Fisher was fatally stabbed in the chest with the knife penetrating a valve in his heart. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
West Midlands Police Detective Inspector, Michelle Thurgood, who led the investigation, called it “a challenge”.
Court artist sketch of Remy Gordon (left) and Kami Carpenter
PA
She said: “Getting a call to say someone has been murdered in a nightclub in the dark which has over 2000 people, is a challenge in itself, however, with the assistance of CCTV and then from the appeal we put out to the public, we were able to piece together who were potential suspects.
“Particularly in terms of the suspects, with absolute minute detail, we would watch, watch and rewatch the CCTV, which was a process that took months, not days.”
Commenting on the motive behind Fisher’s murder, she added: “We have all been that person who has either pushed or been pushed by somebody in a crowded premise, and normally it’s a few cross words or an apology.
“I guess we will never understand why Remy Gordon took such an affront to this that led to the events of Boxing Day.”
Cody’s mum, Tracey Fisher, has now started a campaign for increased security at nightclubs and the introduction of bleed kits.
In her victim impact statement, she said: "It's like I too was stabbed in the heart.
“Cody Fisher was brave, fearless and the most genuine soul I knew.
"I had the pleasure and honour to call him my son."