{"id":16797,"date":"2012-07-05T23:56:33","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T06:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=16797"},"modified":"2013-02-08T23:31:22","modified_gmt":"2013-02-09T07:31:22","slug":"armed-robbery-suspect-pleads-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/07\/05\/armed-robbery-suspect-pleads-not-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed robbery suspect pleads not guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Damon Banks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Updated 2\/7\/2013: Charges against Damon Banks and Lee McQuilkin were dismissed on Feb. 7, 2013. Read\u00a0more here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 A 27-year-old man previously profiled on the Lancaster Station\u2019s Most Wanted list,<\/a> for allegedly robbing three fast food restaurants at gunpoint, appeared in an Antelope Valley courtroom Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Damon Deshaun Banks<\/strong> pleaded not guilty to five counts of armed robbery and was ordered back to custody on $300,000 bail.<\/p>\n

Banks and 27-year-old Lee Vance McQuilkin<\/strong> are accused of robbing Little Caesars, Wienerschnitzel and Subway, between 7 and 9 p.m., on Sunday, June 10<\/a>. In each case, two men walked into the restaurant, held the employees at gunpoint, demanded money from the register and then escaped on foot, sheriff\u2019s officials said.<\/p>\n

Family members Thursday insisted Banks had nothing to do with the robberies because he was not in Lancaster when the crimes occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has no gang ties, he finished college and he\u2019s not from the \u2018hood\u2019, he\u2019s from Lakewood, California\u2026\u201d said Banks’ mother Cecilia Duckworth. \u201cYou have a 27-year-old man with a job who has never had any kind of criminal doings, and all of a sudden he\u2019s gonna go out and rob these places? For what, $50? It doesn\u2019t even make sense!\u201d<\/p>\n

Duckworth said her son\u2019s ties to the Antelope Valley include a grandmother who moved to Lancaster about three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been getting calls that his grandmother, his father\u2019s mother, was very ill,\u201d Duckworth said, adding that Banks\u2019 father died in 1992.<\/p>\n

Banks went to Lancaster on June 9 to attend a Pacquiao vs. Bradley fight party and to see his grandmother, Duckworth said. But the party ended too late for him to see his grandmother that night, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said \u2018instead of waking up granny, I just got me a room at Motel 8,\u2019\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n

She said Banks’ grandmother worried when he didn\u2019t show up on June 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was concerned when Damon didn\u2019t come over Saturday because there had been a bad accident on the 14 Freeway, but I told her he called, so I know he\u2019s okay,\u201d Duckworth said.<\/p>\n

She said Banks ate at Subway Sunday morning (June 10) and headed to grandma\u2019s afterward. Duckworth said she was concerned about her son\u2019s drive home, so she checked on him several times to make sure he was okay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said \u2018I know you\u2019re tired because you stayed up late at the fight party, but be careful on that 14 Freeway,\u2019\u201d Duckworth said. \u201cAround five o\u2019clock I called him, and he said \u2018I\u2019m alright, I\u2019m getting ready to get on the 105.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks was back in Lakewood before sundown on June 10, said his fianc\u00e9e Alera Sugges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still daylight outside so it couldn\u2019t be any later than like six o\u2019 clock,\u201d Sugges said.<\/p>\n

On June 22, Banks was charged with five counts of armed robbery in connection with the June 10 robberies; and a $300,000 felony warrant for his arrest was issued on June 25, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Banks and McQuilkin were classified as \u201carmed and dangerous\u201d and placed on a Most Wanted list<\/a>, which was circulated to the local media on June 25. The men were identified as suspects in the robberies through a combination of \u201csurveillance video and good old police work,\u201d according to Lancaster Station spokesman Michael Rust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually thought it was a joke at first,\u201d Sugges said. \u201cThen someone sent us the link to the article and we saw his picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Banks’ driver’s license photo was circulated through the local media on June 25.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat is the picture for his driver’s license, that\u2019s not a mug shot,\u201d said Duckworth, referring to the photo of Banks\u2019 that ran in the media. She said she cried when she got the news, but her son assured her that it was a misunderstanding and he would turn himself in and clear his name.<\/p>\n

Banks and his fianc\u00e9e drove to the Lancaster Station on July 3 to speak with detectives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought he would go in, give them his information, and let them know that he\u2019s gainfully employed and he has no reason to rob anyone,\u201d Sugges said. \u201cWe thought they would let him go when they realized they made a mistake and identified the wrong person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks was jailed instead<\/a>. At Thursday\u2019s court hearing, bail was set at $300,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have $30,000 sitting in the bank,\u201d said Duckworth. \u201cBut in the last seven hours, we have rallied to raise more than $9,000 because there are so many people who believe in his innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duckworth said she fears her son may not get a fair trial, so she has took on the burden of proving her son\u2019s innocence. In doing so, she said she has read several news reports on recent robberies in the Antelope Valley that were committed by two Black males.<\/p>\n

\u201c[During] every single one of those other robberies Damon was at work,\u201d she said, adding that her son works a graveyard shift in Cerritos. \u201cI got a copy of the times he clocked in and I got a copy of the times he clocked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duckworth said she also combed through her son\u2019s social media accounts for anything linking Banks to McQuilkin, his alleged accomplice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at every single [facebook]friend that he had, over 400 friends,\u201d she said. \u201cI looked at every single friend\u2019s friend and that individual is not in any of the pictures I looked at because he didn\u2019t know that individual. What strangers would rob places together?\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Sugges and Duckworth said they have not been contacted by law enforcement or anyone else concerning the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to cooperate with the district attorney in order for them to confirm his whereabouts,\u201d said Sugges. \u201cI\u2019m willing to submit to a polygraph and whatever they need to ensure that they do a complete investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a registered nurse with a Masters\u2019 Degree, my children were brought up in an affluent area and they are educated,\u201d said Duckworth. \u201cThat should have nothing to do with it, but at least it puts a hole in the stereotype.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks\u2019 preliminary hearing is set for July 17.<\/p>\n

*A County court records search for a criminal history on Damon Banks revealed three convictions for traffic offenses – driving with a BAC of .08 percent or higher in 2010, driving with unlawfully tinted windows in 2007, and making an unsafe turn in 2006. There were no other convictions in Banks’ history, according to the court records.
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Updated 2\/7\/2013: Charges against Damon Banks and Lee McQuilkin were dismissed on Feb. 7, 2013. Read\u00a0more here. LANCASTER \u2013 A 27-year-old man previously profiled on the Lancaster Station\u2019s Most Wanted list, for allegedly robbing three fast food restaurants at gunpoint, appeared in an Antelope Valley courtroom Thursday morning. Damon Deshaun Banks pleaded not guilty to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}