State v. Banks

86 So. 3d 56, 2012 WL 204535, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 61
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 25, 2012
DocketNo. 46,898-KA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 86 So. 3d 56 (State v. Banks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Banks, 86 So. 3d 56, 2012 WL 204535, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 61 (La. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

DREW, J.

| ¶Matt Banks was convicted by a jury of two counts of second degree murder, La. R.S. 14:30.1. He was sentenced to consecutive life sentences, without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence. He appeals, alleging insufficiency of the evidence in this circumstantial case. We affirm in all respects.

FACTS

Shortly after 11:00 p.m. on June 29, 2002, firefighters found the bodies of Irma Williams and her brother, Roy Tugler, inside their burning home at 1606 Hwy. 139 in Monroe, Louisiana. Each body revealed blunt force trauma. The body of Williams was partially burned and smelled of accelerant.

Williams and Banks were involved in a violent relationship for over a decade. They had recently broken up, and she was dating another man.

Authorities interviewed Banks on the day after the murders. His truck and home were searched and items removed for analysis. Also occurring on the day after this horrific event was the discovery of an iron plumbing pipe at the crime scene. Banks is a plumber. Human hairs were embedded in one end of the pipe along with what was believed to be blood. None of the physical evidence linked Banks to the crime scene. The case lay dormant for seven years.

In 2009, a former deputy revealed that a neighbor of Banks’s might have relevant information. The neighbor stated that on the night of the murders, he heard Banks talking loudly with Williams and then later saw Banks walking away from the neighborhood. After further investigation, 12Banks was arrested and indicted for two counts of second degree murder. He was convicted as charged.

TESTIMONY AT TRIAL

Michael Johnson testified that on June 29, 2002, he saw and immediately reported smoke at the burning home.

Ronald Daley testified that:

[58]*58• he was a Ouachita Parish fireman who responded to the emergency call;
• the fire department arrived four minutes after the call to find chest-high smoke coming from the house, indicating that the fire was just starting;
• an unresponsive female and male were found and removed from the home;
• both of the victims were dead;
• each body reflected massive blunt force trauma to the head;
• the female was burned from the head to just above the knees;
• the fire was small and concentrated in a side bedroom;
• a chair in the room appeared to be the focus point of the fire; and
• the fire was extinguished in less than a minute by 50-100 gallons of water.

Greg Thompson, a fire department investigator, testified that:

• he concluded that the fire was started in a bedroom by a person using an acceler-ant, gasoline;
• he was aware of no burns on the male victim; and
• the fire had burned for less than 30 minutes before fire personnel arrived.

Lt. Renee Smith testified that:

|s* at the time of the fire, she was a sergeant with the crime scene unit of the investigation division of the Ouachita Parish Sheriffs Office;
• both bodies had already been removed from the house when she arrived;
• Williams’s body was charred from her head to just above her knees;
• the odor of gasoline was noted on Williams’s body;
• there were no burn areas on Tugler’s body;
• she identified photographs and video taken at the crime scene;
• technicians noted a broken lamp, directional blood splatter, blood splatter on the headboard, and transfer evidence of blood;
• more directional blood splatter was found in the kitchen;
• dishes were turned over and broken, suggesting a possible struggle;
• the hallway also reflected signs of a struggle, including black shoe marks on the wall and indentations where apparently the weapon used struck the wall;
• upon returning to the crime scene the next day, technicians found a 22-inch plumbing pipe on the water-pooled floor in the front bedroom;
• the pipe had not been seen the night before, when the house was very dark;
• hair was on one end of the pipe, a sample of which was taken to the crime lab;
• nothing at the crime scene could be traced back to Banks;
• the material on the end of the pipe was from a human;
• no DNA evidence was recovered from the pipe or the hairs;
• a metal T-ball bat and a wooden bat were also found inside the house, but there was no indication that they had been used in either murder;
• technicians recovered a butane lighter in a walkway outside the house;
• a blood-soaked pillow was found in the yard;
14» investigators did not find Banks’s fingerprints or palm prints at the scene;
• only a trailer separated Banks’s house from the burned home;
• both homes had light poles out front;
• during a June 30, 2002, search of Banks’s house, several items were seized;1
[59]*59• no accelerant was found at Banks’s house, nor was any odor of an accelerant detected on any of his clothing;
• neither the items seized from his home nor those seized from his motor vehicle connected Banks to the crime scene;
• given the indications of a struggle and the large amount of blood, she assumed that had Banks been there, he would have had quite a bit of blood on him; and
• blood evidence can be destroyed by fire, diluted by water, or destroyed by some chemicals, such as are found in laundry detergent, the use of which makes the recovery of blood evidence quite difficult.

Capt. Larry Knight testified that:

• in 2002, he was an investigator with the Ouachita Parish Sheriffs Office;
• the night of the crimes, he sent to all local agencies a BOLO for Banks’s truck;
• Banks was located about 3:00 a.m. on June 30, 2002, at the residence of Beverly Connor on Outlet Road in Monroe;
• Banks voluntarily agreed to accompany the officers to the sheriffs office;
• he admitted that he and Williams had a violent relationship for 11 years, but they had become friends, though he hadn’t seen her for two weeks;
Is* Banks said that Williams had previously accused him of certain crimes and that he pled guilty to kidnapping and to stabbing her, but those charges were false;

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Related

Matt Banks v. Darrel Vannoy, Warden
708 F. App'x 795 (Fifth Circuit, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 So. 3d 56, 2012 WL 204535, 2012 La. App. LEXIS 61, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-banks-lactapp-2012.