Prosecutors rest case against Antwon Banks in radio station employee’s 2014 death

Antwon Banks told a police detective that he went to Steckline Communications twice the night Daniel Flores died – once to look for insurance papers he thought his former girlfriend stored there, and the second time to try to remove derogatory messages he noticed had been written about her on basement walls with a permanent marker, according to testimony Friday.

Although he didn’t pen the notes, he said in the police interview, Banks thought they might “cause problems for him” because he had been in a 14-month on-again, off-again relationship with the woman they were directed toward, Wichita police Sgt. Thomas Fatkin testified.

When Banks tried to open one of the double doors leading into the basement hallway on Feb. 9, 2014, though, it was blocked by something on the other side, Fatkin said Banks told him.

When he tried the other door, it opened and he stepped inside into the dark, only to trip over something he thought was a fire extinguisher, Fatkin continued. Fatkin said Banks claimed he never knew there was a body inside.

The police sergeant’s testimony came Friday before prosecutors rested their case against Banks, who is being tried on one count of first-degree murder in Flores’ bludgeoning death. Testimony earlier in the week said the 25-year-old Flores was fatally beaten with a fire extinguisher after coming across his killer scrawling hate-filled messages about a woman named Lisa on three basement walls of Steckline Communications, 1632 S. Maize Road.

Flores, who was working at the time, helped take care of computer and audio equipment for taped broadcasts at the building, which houses radio stations and an agricultural network.

His body was found by a fellow employee around 8 a.m. Feb. 10. Flores’ feet, according to testimony, were blocking one of entry doors in the basement hallway.

Prosecutors say it was Banks who penned the messages in a fit of obsession and because he wanted to humiliate Lisa Bryce – an office manager at Steckline – in front of her co-workers following their breakup. They allege he killed Flores to avoid being identified. Security camera footage captured by a business across the street places him at the crime scene on Feb. 9.

Banks’ attorney, Lacy Gilmour, began presenting her case to jurors late Friday afternoon. She told the judge she expected testimony from defense witnesses to continue into Tuesday.

Banks, 32, is being held in Sedgwick County Jail on $750,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge. If convicted, he faces a life prison sentence.

Banks, Fatkin said in court Friday, initially was questioned by detectives Feb. 10 after Bryce mentioned his name in her own interview with police. After his arrest and charging, though – and after reading several law enforcement reports about Flores’ killing – Banks requested another interview with Fatkin, the police sergeant testified.

It was during that second interview that Banks claimed he went to the radio station twice on Feb. 9. The first time, at 7:45 p.m., he arrived in his current girlfriend’s car to search for his papers, but left empty-handed after he noticed the hate-filled messages and heard people arguing, Fatkin said Banks told him.

He later returned alone in his own car planning to wash the derogatory writing off of the wall, Fatkin said Banks told him. Banks entered the building but claimed he fled within moments because he tripped after opening the basement door and because he heard keys rattling, Fatkin testified.

In other testimony Friday, an inmate at the Sedgwick County Jail told jurors that Banks disclosed details of Flores’ killing to him while they were housed together in one of the jail’s pods.

Cortez Williams said Banks talked of taking a fire extinguisher from the Steckline building, dropping it into a WalMart dumpster and being splattered with blood. Williams also said he advised Banks to “try to get manslaughter” in Flores’ death after Banks told him: “I didn’t mean for it to happen like that.”

Gilmour tried to discredit the story by pointing out that Williams received a favorable plea deal in his own criminal cases in exchange for his testimony.

The trial resumes Monday morning. District Judge Bruce Brown is presiding.

This story was originally published April 3, 2015 at 9:39 PM with the headline "Prosecutors rest case against Antwon Banks in radio station employee’s 2014 death."