State v. Banks

994 N.W.2d 230, 2023 S.D. 39
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 26, 2023
Docket29875
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 994 N.W.2d 230 (State v. Banks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Banks, 994 N.W.2d 230, 2023 S.D. 39 (S.D. 2023).

Opinion

#29875-a-PJD 2023 S.D. 39

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA

****

STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA, Plaintiff and Appellee,

v.

RAYMOND CHARLES BANKS, Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT MINNEHAHA COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA

THE HONORABLE ROBIN J. HOUWMAN Judge

KRISTI JONES Sioux Falls, South Dakota

MANUEL J. DE CASTRO JR. Sioux Falls, South Dakota Attorneys for defendant and appellant.

MARTY J. JACKLEY Attorney General

PAUL S. SWEDLUND Solicitor General Pierre, South Dakota Attorneys for plaintiff and appellee.

ARGUED MARCH 23, 2023 OPINION FILED 07/26/23 #29875

DEVANEY, Justice

[¶1.] Raymond Banks pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Prior to his

sentencing hearing, Banks sought to introduce evidence of a polygraph examination

regarding his role in the crime. The circuit court precluded the admission of the

polygraph evidence and sentenced Banks to eighty years in the penitentiary with

twenty years suspended. Banks appeals, raising the single issue of whether the

circuit court erred in excluding the polygraph evidence in its sentencing

consideration. We affirm.

Factual and Procedural History

[¶2.] Casey Bonhorst was killed by a single gunshot wound to his neck on

the evening of February 26, 2020, after delivering a pizza to a home in Sioux Falls.

The investigation of this incident led law enforcement to suspect Banks and

Jahennessy Bryant as the perpetrators of the shooting. Bryant was arrested first,

but on August 12, 2020, Banks and Bryant were charged as co-defendants in a five-

count superseding indictment that included two counts of first-degree murder, one

count of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter, and one

count of attempted first-degree robbery.

[¶3.] Throughout the entirety of the proceedings, Banks and Bryant have

maintained differing accounts of the events that transpired leading to Bonhorst’s

death. Both agreed that while walking from Banks’s girlfriend’s apartment to the

duplex where Banks’s aunt resided, they noticed a Domino’s delivery vehicle parked

outside the duplex. According to Bryant, Banks suggested that they rob the

delivery man, but Banks claimed it was Bryant’s idea.

-1- #29875

[¶4.] As to the subsequent events, Bryant testified at a pretrial hearing that

Banks approached Bonhorst, pulled a gun on him, and told him, “Don’t move or

anything, try anything stupid.” Bryant explained that he started moving toward

Banks to help him by holding Bonhorst from behind, but then he heard gunshots.

After the shooting, both he and Banks took off running in different directions.

[¶5.] The roles were essentially reversed in Banks’s version of the events,

with Bryant being the shooter and Banks serving as the lookout. Banks claimed

that he stayed back behind the house as a lookout while Bryant walked up to

Bonhorst and put the gun in his face. According to Banks, Bonhorst threw some

change at Bryant and lunged at him. Bryant reacted by pulling the trigger, after

which they both fled the scene.

[¶6.] In November 2020, both defendants moved to sever their cases and the

circuit court granted their motions. Bryant subsequently entered into a plea

agreement with the State, pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter in exchange

for a cap on his sentence of twenty-five years in prison with twenty-five additional

years suspended. As part of his plea agreement, Bryant was required to testify

against Banks.

[¶7.] Later, Banks also pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter. His

agreement capped the prison time he would have to serve at sixty years with the

possibility of more time suspended. At Banks’s change of plea hearing, the State

described the factual basis for the plea in accord with Bryant’s version of the events,

with Banks being the shooter. Banks contested this factual basis and alleged that

while the underlying facts provided by the State were true, the roles were reversed.

-2- #29875

Banks claimed Bryant was the shooter but acknowledged to the court that he knew

a robbery was going to occur and that he stood by as a lookout. In response to

further questions from the court about his actions, Banks admitted that he was

aiding and abetting the situation. The court then accepted Banks’s guilty plea.

[¶8.] Two days before his sentencing hearing, Banks notified the court and

counsel that he was planning to offer the testimony of Mike Webb, a polygraph

examiner, regarding the results of a polygraph examination Banks had recently

taken at the jail, which supported his version of the shooting. The polygraph report

states that in the examiner’s opinion, Banks showed “no significant reaction

indicating deception” when he answered “no” to questions regarding whether he had

shot Bonhorst on the date in question.

[¶9.] Prior to the hearing, the State objected to the admission of any

testimony regarding the polygraph examination. The State argued that polygraph

evidence is not admissible at sentencing absent an agreement by the parties, citing

State v. Stevenson, 2002 S.D. 120, 652 N.W.2d 735. The circuit court agreed with

the State and noted that because of the questionable reliability of polygraph

examination results, this Court has consistently held that such evidence is not

admissible in any proceeding and has only affirmed the admission of such evidence

where there was a stipulation or agreement between the parties. The court

therefore ruled that the evidence of Banks’s polygraph examination would not be

admitted at his sentencing hearing.

[¶10.] Banks and Bryant were sentenced at a joint sentencing hearing at

which the circuit court considered evidence of the crime committed relating to both

-3- #29875

defendants, as well as information regarding each defendant’s history and

background. The State asked for sentences consistent with the respective agreed-

upon caps in each defendant’s plea agreement. Banks, however, maintained that he

was not the shooter and urged the circuit court to impose the same sentence for

both defendants.

[¶11.] The circuit court began its remarks by explaining what must be

considered when imposing a sentence, including the gravity of the offense in

comparison to the harshness of the penalty, the character and history of the

defendant, the defendant’s rehabilitation prospects, any expressed remorse, an

appropriate punishment, and deterrence. The court then acknowledged that the

facts were not clear about what had happened in this case. Because there was no

trial, the court noted its reliance on other sources of information, such as police

reports, prior testimony, forensic evidence reports, and the additional information

contained in the presentence investigation reports.

[¶12.] In describing the offense itself, the circuit court acknowledged the

divergent stories of the two defendants. The court related the evidence implicating

both Banks and Bryant and also commented on the evidence in the record which did

or did not support each defendant’s version of the events. Importantly, the court

noted that regardless of the two versions, both men had pled guilty to manslaughter

in the first degree—a killing of another human being with a dangerous weapon. See

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Related

State v. Martin
2025 S.D. 15 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 2025)

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Bluebook (online)
994 N.W.2d 230, 2023 S.D. 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-banks-sd-2023.