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A bizarre set of circumstances – and some inventive thinking by Terrebonne Parish prosecutors – have resulted in major prison time for a Houma street criminal prior to his pending trial on charges related to high-profile murder case.
Assistant District Attorney Seth Dodd, with help from colleague Dennis Elfert and First Assistant District Attorney Jason Dagate, successfully engineered a habitual violent offender designation for 24-year-old Maurice Banks, allowing District Judge Johnny Walker to impose a 30-year sentence without benefit of probation or parole.
The sentence is more than Banks might have drawn if convicted for his alleged role in the Oct, 2015 death of Corey Butler, a Houma teen, during a broad-daylight gunfight that riveted public attention on a wave of street violence among young clusters of drug dealers in east and central Houma. Banks faces a charge of principle, or accessory to, Butler’s killing
The maneuver was possible because, while awaiting trial on the murder principle charge, he purposefully masturbated as a nurse in the jail was attempting to perform her duties.
His conviction on that felony charge, after a jury trial, made Banks eligible for the violent offender status, even though it was not a violent crime.
“This was truly a habitual offender,” said Dagate, who praised the work of Dodd and Elfert. “They did a lot of work to make sure the conviction ultimately was had and will stand. Seth Dodd did most of the work on this, along with Dennis Elffert. Now he will stay off the streets.”
The prosecution team kept Butler’s mother apprised of their plans and progress in dealing with Banks, who was sentenced on what would have been the victim’s 20th birthday.
Rarely used in Bayou Region courts, Louisiana’s habitual violent offender law is a powerful tool designed to take such criminals off the streets for a maximum range of years. Three violent felonies put a criminal in place for such status. A fourth felony conviction, whether for a crime of violence or not, opens the door. A judge is asked to lower the boom at a contradictory hearing if certain conditions are met.
Banks’ adult criminal history began in 2010, with conviction on a drug possession charge. That same year he was convicted on a charge of aggravated flight from an officer.
In 2011 Banks was arrested for attempted first degree murder, but difficulties with the case resulted in a conviction instead for illegal use of a weapon in 2013, a second violent offense.
A 2012 conviction for aggravated flight added another charge. That gave him two violent felonies and a weapons charge.
In Nov. 2012, while in custody, Banks was charged with another felony, battery of a corrections officer and convicted in 2013.
He was charged with murder in connection with the Butler slaying, and drew the non-violent but applicable felony obscenity charge while awaiting that case’s progress in the jail.
Prosecutors are weighing how they will handle the pending murder charge, but for now have shifted their focus on Banks’ co-defendants.
Butler, a brash, flashy and charismatic teen, was with at least one friend on the 400 block of Morgan Street at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 28, 2015 when allegedly accosted by Banks associates Elward Williams and Anthony Sylvester. Banks was allegedly present as well.
According to initial accounts given detectives Butler was slapped by Sylvester, then pulled a gun and fired. Multiple shots were then fired at Butler. Banks and an 18-year-old with a street name of “Vez” were both wounded. Sylvester was paralyzed by a shot that hit him. Prosecutors said they don’t know if Sylvester, now jailed, is still disabled.
Relatives of Butler have bristled at accounts of the incident that paint the teen in a negative light, and insist that he had nothing to do with illegal drug traffic in the Morgan Street area.
At the time of the shooting Houma Police Chief Dana Coleman had noted the danger the incident posed for people other than those involved in the dispute, noting that not long before it occurred children had been just coming home from school.
The shooting was cited as an example of new dynamics in local street violence. Where drug sales and the problems they spawn once involved turf disputes between gangs, posses or neighborhoods, a new generation of young entrepreneurs feeds their egos through social media posts. This exacerbates tiffs between individuals and violence results.
The 2012 attempted murder case that resulted in an aggravated flight conviction for Banks stemmed from a shooting at Al’s Trailer Park in Gray that left two people wounded.
The aggravated flight charge resulted from an attempt by police to apprehend Banks, who crashed a pickup into a utility pole.
