Delayed trial reset for Columbus man charged with killing father, 3-year-old son
A postponed trial in the ruthless 2018 double homicide of a Columbus father and his 3-year-old son is set to begin Monday with jury selection.
Attorneys say they are ready to try Antonio Bernard “Tony” Willis in the deaths of Joseph Banks II, 41, and his son Jacaiden Banks. Captured in May 2019, he on Friday had been jailed 1,304 days.
His trial was scheduled for Sept. 19, but had to be postponed when Willis’ public defender Angela Morelock told the court she was ill. Medics called to Judge Gil McBride’s Government Center courtroom wheeled her out on a gurney.
Moreland, who in a court filing said she had suffered chronic bacterial bronchitis, is off the case now. Willis’ lead defense attorney is another public defender, Bentley Adams IV, who’ll be aided by attorney Jose Guzman. The lead prosecutor is Assistant District Attorney Robin Anthony, assisted by colleague Austin Hammock.
Five hundred jurors have been summoned to provide a pool from which 12 plus alternates will be chosen to hear the evidence in Willis’ case, which is to include surveillance video and photographs of the bodies.
Adams filed a motion objecting to any images depicting the child while his autopsy was underway, arguing they would prejudice jurors against his client, but prosecutors said they do not plan to use those photos.
Anthony filed a motion for Willis to be treated as a repeat offender, should he be convicted, citing these previous felony offenses:
- Possessing cocaine and possessing marijuana, with the intent to distribute each, and using a gun to commit a crime, on Feb. 18, 2004.
- Auto theft on July 19, 2001.
Born in October 1981, Willis was 37 when the homicides happened. He’s now 41 years old, and faces life in prison if convicted. Because the case involves two victims, he could be given two consecutive life sentences, if found guilty of each homicide.
The investigation
Willis is accused of fatally shooting the pair overnight on Nov. 27, 2018. The bodies were found at 8:38 a.m. outside a vacant home at 6 Stuart Drive, where the blood around them froze on the ground, according to police accounts of the investigation.
Banks had been staying at the Colony Inn, 4300 Victory Drive, and investigators retracing his movements said four witnesses told them they saw him there with Willis that night, police said.
Detectives said they got motel surveillance video showing Willis in the parking lot at 1:07 a.m. lifting Jacaiden into the father’s Ford pickup, so the boy could sit in the front seat between the two men.
After police found the 2004 Ford F-150 pickup abandoned, detectives decided the child still was 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. Friends in that area reported Willis was acting “erratic” and “paranoid,” asking for money so he could 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.
The suspect told police that he walked 17 miles to the 2800 Harley Court shuttle station in two hours, after Banks dropped him off on Victory Drive when they left the motel, though the 17-mile trek should have taken him twice that long, Nicholas said.
Groome security cameras showed he arrived about 3½ hours after he was recorded leaving the Colony Inn, the detective said.
After arriving in Atlanta, Willis remained on the run for about five months before U.S. Marshals captured him.
A grand jury indicted him Oct. 30, 2020, on two counts of murder and one count each of aggravated assault and attempting to commit a felony. The attempted felony charge alleges Willis lured Banks to Stuart Drive while trying to rob him at gunpoint.
Willis’ trial is to be held in McBride’s courtroom on the Columbus Government Center’s 11th floor.
This story was originally published December 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.