Two men have been put behind bars for the murder of footballer Cody Fisher after he was stabbed to death in a nightclub.
Remy Gordon and Kami Carpenter have been jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for life with a minimum term of 26 and 25 years respectively following the Boxing Day attack in 2022. The pair had pointed the blame at each other for the stabbing, but were both found guilty last month. Reegan Anderson, a third defendant, aged 19, was cleared.
Mr Fisher tragically died at the scene after he was knifed in the chest at Birmingham’s Crane nightclub. His death was linked to a minor altercation which took place at a club in Solihull two nights earlier. The attack was described as "awful revenge" against the footballer, who was a former Birmingham City academy member. He also played for Stratford Town and Bromsgrove Sporting.
During the trial, it was revealed that Gordon located a social media picture of the victim and uploaded it into his Snapchat group of friends asking 'Who knows this likkle pip squeeze?'. In a follow-up post, he said: 'Due to shank him up.' The jury heard that both Gordon and Carpenter discussed knives and the level of security at sites including Crane. Carpenter later shared an image of him posing with a huge machete on Christmas Eve. It was found that this was the same weapon used to end the footballer's life.
Cody's mum Tracey paid a heartbreaking tribute following his death
Cody was described as an 'outgoing' person (West Midlands Police / SWNS)A 10-week trial was told Mr Fisher was attacked with a weapon smuggled through security into Digbeth’s Crane nightclub before a pre-planned “act of retribution” for a minor incident two days earlier. Jurors were told Gordon, of Cofton Park Drive, Birmingham, orchestrated the stabbing after Mr Fisher made brief “unavoidable” contact with his back while leaving a packed club on Christmas Eve.
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On Monday, Judge Paul Farrer KC issued jail terms to Gordon and Carpenter. In a statement read out in court, Mr Fisher’s girlfriend Jessica Chatwin, who was with him the night he was killed, said her world “shattered” as her boyfriend took his last breaths in her arms.
She said: “Seconds before that moment I remember turning around and looking at Cody behind me and he gave me the biggest smile full of love and happiness – now I question if that was his goodbye. The next time I turned around he was surrounded by those attacking him and I watched him fall to the floor, then reality struck that he had been fatally stabbed. My life stopped that day, I live each day with enormous pain, loneliness and sadness.
Kami Carpenter has been sentenced (West Midlands Police / SWNS)
Remy Gordon was jailed for the Boxing Day attack (West Midlands Police / SWNS)“I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with Cody. Now I have to face the world without his love and guidance, something he always showed me while we were together. He was my strength in every situation and now I have to face it all alone.” A statement from Mr Fisher’s mother Tracey, who did not enter the court room but was in the building during the sentencing hearing, was also read out in which she said it was “too much for a mother to bear” to hear the defendants’ “abhorrent lies”.
Paying tribute to her son, her statement said: “Since this horrendous day I feel that my own life has ended, it is as though I too was stabbed straight through the heart. I have seen myself go from the happiest, outgoing person, to fighting the hell out of just getting through each and every horrendous, never-ending day in the abhorrent knowledge that my youngest son, my best friend, is never coming home to sleep in his bedroom, the room that I still cannot enter even to this day.
CCTV stills showed the moments leading up to his death (WMP)“I instilled in Cody from a young boy that he must stick up for himself and don’t let anyone bully him. I told him that sad, weak individuals do exist in our society and they ruin lives – how ironic and saddening that this is exactly what happened to Cody. He was only doing what his mum told him to do and I think about this every day, but you never expect your child to be murdered.”
Prosecutor Michael Duck KC told the court it was an “orchestrated attack” on Mr Fisher and Gordon was later captured on CCTV in a pizza takeaway restaurant “re-enacting the attack… and laughing while he did so”. He said the pair had shown no remorse for what they had done and had sought to evade capture, with Gordon attempting to flee to Jamaica and Carpenter to London, before their arrests.
The footballer was stabbed to death just after Christmas (West Midlands Police / SWNS)Opening the case in January, Mr Duck told jurors Mr Fisher was stabbed in the chest, penetrating a valve in his heart, and was pronounced dead at the scene, while a close friend of the victim was chased and kicked but managed to get to his feet and escape. Mr Duck said it was not a matter of “chance” or a “flash of temper” that Mr Fisher was attacked, rather a “planned act of retribution” after a minor incident at Popworld nightclub in Solihull around 48 hours before he was killed.
As Mr Fisher and his friend were making their way towards the club’s exit, there was a “brief coming together” with Gordon, Mr Duck said. He said: “Necessarily they had to move through a crowd of people. Tragically, amongst that crowd was Remy Gordon. "There was a brief contact between Cody Fisher and Remy Gordon’s back it seems. Cody Fisher it seems did little more than touch Remy Gordon’s back. Remy Gordon was looking for an argument with somebody.”
The victim was first approached at Popworld on Christmas Eve (WMP)Referring to social media messages subsequently sent by Gordon, Mr Duck told the jury: “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.” Mr Fisher was not prepared to apologise, having done nothing wrong and been threatened with violence, the court heard, and left the club with his friend.
Mr Duck said of Gordon: “He was set on retribution that ultimately was to lead to the loss of Cody Fisher’s young life in the Crane nightclub. The strength of his resentment can be gleaned from messages sent within about 50 minutes of the encounter in Popworld. He felt rather embarrassed and frustrated that he had been unable to intimidate a member of the public.”
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Disclosing what he described as “one of the appalling details of the case”, Mr Duck said: “That weapon was recovered – it was recovered by medical staff when they came to treat him and it was still embedded in his chest as he lay on the ground.”
The fatal attack took place at Crane nightclub (SWNS)Jurors were also shown CCTV images of the three defendants arriving at the Crane club and copies of Snapchat messages sent between Gordon and Carpenter in the hours before they arrived there. One message referred to a “bally” and another asked “can I get a shank in there”.
A third electronic conversation – which showed a “sinister intention” on the part of Gordon – 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.”
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