Baltimore man faces a quarter of a century in prison for violent carjackings
BALTIMORE -- A Baltimore man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for participating in a string of carjackings, armed robberies, and shootings across the city in the summer of 2019, according to state prosecutors.
David Banks, 29, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to commit the carjackings and six robberies, state authorities said.
During the carjackings and robberies, one of the conspirators brandished a gun to threaten and subdue the victims into submission, according to state prosecutors.
Charging documents show that Banks committed crimes at the Shoe City store in the 6500 block of Reisterstown Road, a Metro PCS store in the 4000 block of Edmondson Avenue, and the First Cash Pawn store in the 6600 block of Reisterstown Road.
He worked with others to take money and property from store employees "against their will by means of actual and threatened force, violence, and fear of injury, immediate and future," according to court records.
Banks and his co-conspirators did this by threatening the employees with "serious physical injury and death," the documents state.
Together, they entered the businesses with masks over their faces and gloves on their hands to conceal their identities. They would then sell or pawn off the items they took from the victims, according to the court records.
Members of the conspiracy often used stolen vehicles to commit additional crimes and then split the proceeds of their exploits, according to state authorities, according to state prosecutors.
Court documents show that Banks committed these crimes alongside Jamai Wells and Daniel Williams—two of the men who were charged in the shooting of Baltimore police Sgt. Issac Carrington amid their crime spree.
Carrington was gunned down by members of the crime crew outside of his Northeast Baltimore home during an attempted robbery in August 2019. He spent more than two weeks in the hospital before being released.
The string of crimes the crew committed yielded two homicide investigations after victims of the crimes were shot, state authorities said.
Banks admitted that he played a role in a carjacking gone awry on June 12, 2019, according to state prosecutors.
That was the night that Tavon Lowther was fatally shot.
Additionally, Stephen Tasker was killed during one of the attempted armed robberies in the 2800 block of Forest Glen Road, according to the plea agreement.
A detailed plea agreement shows that Banks was connected to an attempted robbery where a victim shot on July 24, 2019, later died and another victim who was shot and killed during an armed robbery committed four days later, state prosecutors said.
After serving 25 years in federal prison, Banks will spend five years on supervised release, state prosecutors said.
