Prosecutors drop charges against Saudi citizen accused in killing Warrensburg bar owner
The Ziyad Abid case took another strange turn today, as prosecutors dropped murder charges against the Saudi national who had been accused of murder in the death of Warrensburg bar owner Blaine Whitworth last September. The story was strange from the beginning. Whitworth was a well-liked young business owner, and his murder shocked the town that’s home to the University of Central Missouri. Soon after the murder, Abid’s roommate, Reginald Singletary Jr., was arrested for the crime. Singletary told police that Abid paid him to kill the bar owner.
Abid, an aviation student at UCM, was also arrested in September, and held on $2 million bail. The Saudi government sent the cash to get Abid out of jail last November, but Judge Michael Wagner refused to free Abid out of fear that he’d flee. Now, the AP reports that Singletary refused to answer questions for a deposition, leading prosecutors to drop the charges.
