‘Cowards’ who murdered footballer for bumping into them in nightclub sentenced to life

Two “cowardly” men who stabbed a footballer to death after he accidentally bumped into them two days earlier have been sentenced to life in prison.

Cody Fisher, 23, was attacked in a Birmingham nightclub on Boxing Day 2022 in an act of “retribution” after briefly making “unavoidable contact” with Remy Gordon at another venue on Christmas Eve.

After the incident, Gordon hatched a plan with Kami Carpenter to “shank him up”, and footage showed them smuggling a knife past security at the Crane nightclub in Digbeth, Birmingham.

The pair then attacked the former Birmingham City academy player, who died at the scene.

Shortly after carrying out the attack, Gordon went to a nearby takeaway, where he laughed and joked with a friend as he described what had happened.

At Birmingham Crown Court on Monday, he was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 26 years in prison. Carpenter will serve life with a minimum of 25 years.

Fellow defendant Reegan Anderson, 19, was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter but was convicted of affray.

The court heard how, two days before his murder, Mr Fisher had briefly brushed past Gordon at the Popworld venue.

Michel Duck KC, prosecuting, said: “Cody Fisher and a close friend, who was later chased at the Crane nightclub, were making their way towards the exit.

“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. Remy Gordon was looking for an argument with somebody.”

The court heard how Gordon sent messages on Snapchat to friends around 45 minutes after the initial incident, appealing for help to identify a photograph showing Mr Fisher and threatening to “shank him up”.

Judge Paul Farrer KC said Gordon believed he had been “disrespected”, which led to the incident at the nightclub.

He said: “Cody Fisher was surrounded by a group of three or four youths, including Gordon and Carpenter.

“The group were wearing masks to conceal their faces and Gordon was immediately aggressive, pushing his face into Mr Fisher’s and repeatedly demanding that he come outside.

“Mr Fisher wasn’t prepared to go outside but was prepared to defend himself if necessary, and to that end, he took off his gold chain and gave it to his girlfriend.

“The attack upon Mr Fisher lasted no more than 37 seconds. It involved punches and kicks, including a blow to the face of sufficient force to fracture the back of Mr Fisher’s jaw, on both sides.

“At some stage, Mr Fisher was also stabbed to his right thigh to a depth of 5cm. In short, this was a sustained attack on a man who was significantly outnumbered and stood little or no chance of defending himself.”

He said the attack only ended when Carpenter stabbed Mr Fisher in the chest.

Following their convictions, Tracey Fisher, Mr Fisher’s mother, said: “The evilness and the cowardliness of those individuals that did that to him for nothing – who even does that? So you can bump into somebody in a pub or a club or whatever, accidentally, and that is the repercussion? To be that evil?”

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.

“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.”

In a statement read out in court, Jessica Chatwin, Mr Fisher’s girlfriend, who was with him on the night he was killed, said her world “shattered” as he 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.

“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.”

This is a breaking news story and is being updated