Bobby Banks' Crew Seems Not To Have Been Affected by his Incarceration

From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Slain man was witness in killing

Prosecutors listed him in case against drug kingpin’s cousin

By Andy Davis

Friday, March 7, 2008

LITTLE ROCK — The man who was found shot to death last week in Interstate Park in Little Rock was a witness in one of two pending murder cases against Kevin Banks, cousin of incarcerated drug kingpin Bobby Banks, court records show.

In a Feb. 7 filing in Pulaski County Circuit Court, prosecutors listed Thomas Steven Okafor, 21, as a witness against Kevin Banks in the Dec. 20 killing of Brent Pettus.

Okafor was found in the park near Arch Street and Interstate 30 about 7 a.m., Feb. 29, police said.

He lived with his great-uncle in a small blue house at 309 W. 33rd St., just around the corner from the 3200 block of Center Street, where Pettus, 25, was found dead of gunshot wounds in a car with its engine running.

Lt. Terry Hastings, a spokesman for the Little Rock Police Department, declined to say whether police believe Okafor’s killing is related to the Pettus case or what information Okafor had provided.

“We are looking into his murder at this time, and we have no suspects at the moment,” Hastings said.

Pulaski County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson declined to comment on the Pettus or Okafor cases.

According to an arrest affidavit, a man identified only as “Witness 2” told police that the shooting followed a botched drug deal.

The witness said that just before the shooting, he was in his car with Kevin Banks, 18, a block from where the shooting happened.

Banks left to buy marijuana from Pettus, the witness said. The witness said he then heard at least three gunshots in the area where Banks had gone.

The witness told police that he had started to drive off when he heard Banks call his name. Banks, armed with a shiny revolver and looking upset, then got into the car, the witness said.

The witness said Banks later told him that Pettus had tried to “short” his marijuana, the affidavit says.

Banks told the witness, “I got into it with the nigger, and I had to shoot him,” the affidavit says.

Okafor’s great-aunt, Carolyn Williams, said Thursday that Okafor, who sometimes went by his middle name, worked at the Wal-Mart on 700 S. Bowman Road.

“He had just gotten a job,” Williams said. “He was trying to find an apartment and buy a car.”

The night before Okafor was found dead, someone saw him standing in front of the house on 33rd Street with a man who was wearing red pants, a red shirt and a red bandana, Williams said.

Okafor had been renting a car, Williams said. On the day the body was found, at about 1 p.m., the family was notified that police had found the car, Williams said.

Hastings said he didn’t have any information on the car.

Kevin Banks has been in the Pulaski County jail, where he is being held without bond, since his Jan. 2 arrest in Pettus’ killing.

He faces a first-degree murder charge in Pettus’ death. He is also charged with capital murder in the Dec. 29 shooting of 6-year-old Kamya Weathersby at the girl’s house at 2715 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and with first-degree battery in the Dec. 5 shooting of three men in the 2600 block of the same street.

Bobby Banks, leader of the 23rd Street Crips in Little Rock for several years, was sentenced in July 2006 to 55 years in prison after being convicted of leading a large cocaine-trafficking operation. He is being held in the United States Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, Ky.