Former Baltimore detective sentenced to 42 years for killing step-son

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Former Baltimore police detective Eric Banks Jr. will spend the next 42 years in prison for killing his 15-year-old step-son.

Baltimore detective sentenced killing step-son

Banks Jr. entered an Alford plea in October 2022 on a second-degree murder charge and an attempting to disarm a police officer charge in the July 2021 killing of his stepson, Dasan “DJ” Jones. That plea means Banks acknowledged the evidence against him but did not admit guilt.

Banks was initially charged with first-degree murder, which would have carried a possible life sentence.

Authorities say Banks strangled his step-son and then placed him in a wall in their residence. According to court documents, after Banks hid the body, he planned to death by suicide next to the victim’s body.

Banks estranged wife Latrice Banks put out a temporary restraining order

Banks and his estranged wife Latrice Banks, who is Jones’ mother, had attended a hearing for temporary restraining orders just an hour before Anne Arundel County police were called to Banks’ home.

Latrice Banks told officers she was there to retrieve her son from the home, but had not received a response from the teen other than a text message saying he had fled the residence.

“DJ was a promising young man with his whole life ahead of him,” Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess said.

“A rising sophomore at Glen Burnie High School, he was a member of the all-county orchestra as a talented violinist and attended a challenging magnet program which he said ‘made him want to work harder.’ His budding life was taken by his stepfather in a likely selfish effort to punish his estranged wife who was granted a protective order just hours before.”