Radio-station murderer and drug-robbery killer both lose at Supreme Court

The state Supreme Court has upheld the convictions of two Wichita murderers – one who beat a radio-station worker to death with a fire extinguisher and another who killed a drug dealer in a botched robbery attempt.

In separate opinions issued Friday, the court confirmed the convictions of Antwon D. Banks, Sr., and Corey Pollard.

Banks was convicted in the 2014 slaying of Daniel Flores, an employee of Steckline Communications, which runs several area radio stations out of an office in the 1600 block of South Maize Road.

Prosecutors charged that Banks killed Flores in rage when Flores caught Banks in the act of vandalizing the radio office in an attempt to get revenge on an ex-girlfriend who worked there.

Flores was on duty tending to the computer and audio equipment that broadcasts pre-recorded programming.

Banks challenged his conviction on grounds that the prosecutor made unreasonable inferences in closing arguments and that the judge had improperly excluded photographs that Banks had wanted to introduce as samples of Flores’ handwriting, to argue that Flores was actually responsible for racist and misogynistic graffiti scrawled inside the building.

The Supreme Court rejected both arguments:

“One might discern that the prosecutor came close to scripting the crime for the jury in more detail than the evidence justified,” the court opinion said. “Nevertheless, the relevant inferences asserted by the prosecutor were supported by the evidence and were reasonable.”

The justices ruled the trial court properly excluded the photographs because “ nothing in the content of the writings gives a clue as to who might have authored them.”

Banks is serving a sentence of life without possibility of parole for 25 years.

Pollard was convicted in the 2013 slaying of Paul “Danny” Khmabounheuang at a Wichita home.

He was charged with being one of four men who arranged a drug buy with Khmabounheuang, while actually intending to rob him instead.

The attempt evolved into a fight over a gun that left Khmabounheuang shot dead and two of the would-be robbers wounded.

Pollard argued that his conviction should be overturned because prosecutors had improperly introduced evidence of gang affiliation and the court clerk’s office mishandled “pro-se” motions he had filed himself.

The court ruled the gang affiliation evidence was admissible because it helped explain the relationship between Pollard and the other suspects and the motions Pollard filed himself weren’t relevant to the outcome of his trial.

“Defendant Corey Pollard’s claims of prosecutorial error based on gang evidence and of denial of due process based on handling his pro se motion to compel are without merit,” the opinion said.

Pollard is serving a life sentence for the murder.

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Radio-station murderer and drug-robbery killer both lose at Supreme Court."