Defense attorney’s health emergency in court delays Columbus double-murder trial
A long-awaited trial in the shocking 2018 double homicide of a Columbus father and his 3-year-old son was postponed this week when the suspect’s attorney had a medical emergency in court.
Attorneys were prepared to pick a jury Monday in Antonio Bernard “Tony” Willis’ trial when his public defender Angela Morelock told the court she was ill, having worked long days before taking more of a codeine-based cough medicine than prescribed, court officials said.
After medics called to Judge Gil McBride’s Government Center courtroom wheeled Morelock out on a gurney around 11:30 a.m., McBride met with remaining attorneys and announced the trial would be reset for Dec. 5.
Morelock’s colleague Bentley Adams IV will represent Willis, and a pretrial hearing will be Oct. 5, McBride said.
The prosecutor is Assistant District Attorney Robin King.
Father and son
Willis is accused of fatally shooting Joseph Banks II, 41, and his son Jacaiden Banks, 3, on Nov. 27, 2018, a night so cold that pooling blood froze to the bodies found 8:38 a.m. on the ground outside a vacant home at 6 Stuart Drive, police said.
Banks had been staying at the Colony Inn, 4300 Victory Drive, and investigators retracing his movements that night said four witnesses told them they’d seen him with Willis there, police said. Detectives got motel surveillance video showing Willis lifting Jacaiden into the father’s Ford pickup, so the boy could sit in the front seat between the two men.
That was at 1:07 a.m., police said.
Examining the 2004 Ford F-150 pickup officers later found abandoned, detectives determined the child was still seated in the middle when Willis gunned down both father and son, leaving six shell casings in the cab, investigators said.
A ballistics examination showed the 9 mm bullets likely came from a Ruger brand pistol, police said. The next day Willis sent texts trying to sell a Ruger pistol, they said.
Banks’ white pickup was left behind a vacant house on Henry Avenue near Bell Street, about 1,000 feet from where friends said they saw Willis that night acting “erratic” and “paranoid,” asking for money and eager to get out of town, Detective Robert Nicholas testified during Willis’ May 2019 hearing in Columbus Recorder’s Court.
Willis left Columbus that night for Atlanta, using a fake name to book a Groome shuttle ride, detectives said.
How Willis got to Groome remained unclear.
The suspect claimed Banks dropped him off on Victory Drive after they left the motel, and he walked from there to the 2800 Harley Court shuttle station in two hours, though Nicholas said the 17-mile trek would have taken him twice that long.
Groome security cameras recorded him arriving there about 3½ hours after he was recorded leaving the Colony Inn, Nicholas said.
After arriving in Atlanta, Willis remained on the run for about five months before U.S. Marshals captured him in 2019.
A grand jury indicted him Oct. 30, 2020, on two counts of murder and one count each of aggravated assault and of attempting to commit a felony. The latter charge alleges Willis lured Banks to Stuart Drive while trying to rob him at gunpoint.
Willis, who was 37 when the homicides happened, is 40 years old now.
He faces life in prison if convicted.
This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 4:57 PM.