Reginald Vance has pled guilty to being an accessory in the fatal assault on Keith Banks in Nov. 2010.
Banks was 29 years old when he was shot and killed in Northeast D.C. near Fort Circle Parks.
Charging documents alleged that Vance drove Banks and Derrell Bennett, and then, while Bennett ordered Banks out of the vehicle, chased him and shot him, Vance waited for Bennett to return to the car. The two of them then fled the scene.
At his first court appearance, Judge Karen Howze declined to pursue the first-degree murder while armed charge which Vance faced. She did present him with the charge the following day after prosecutors reworked their documentation of the crime.
At the presentment with Judge Howze, Vance’s attorney, Eugene Ohm, argued that simply driving a vehicle involved in a crime did not make Vance a murder suspect.
“There is no evidence in front of the court that Mr. Vance knew the decedent would be shot,” Ohm said.
Vance and Bennett were each arraigned in Sept. 2011 on a charge of first-degree murder while armed in connection with Banks’ death. Bennett is scheduled for a jury trial on the charge in August.
Court records show that much of the court proceedings from Vance’s appearance last week are under seal and have not been made public. Though he is not listed as an inmate at DC Jail, according to VINELink records, the court docket indicates that he is in custody. He’s scheduled for sentencing on June 15.
