A federal judge in Portland has ruled that convicted serial killer Joseph K. Banks is not guilty by reason of insanity regarding a charge of illegal gun possession stemming from March 2022.
U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio announced this decision on Tuesday, making it clear that Banks, who is a felon with a previous mental institution commitment, failed to adhere to the conditions of a 2021 federal release order by neglecting to take his prescribed medications while living in a group home in Northeast Portland.
This ruling comes after Banks was ordered to spend life in a state psychiatric hospital in April after being convicted for killing three men and wounding three others in a series of random attacks in 2022.
In terms of the federal case, Banks will be subjected to an indefinite commitment order by federal authorities should he ever regain freedom from his supervision by the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board.
During the proceedings, 52-year-old Banks appeared in court dressed in a maroon-and-black plaid shirt and black sweatpants, his ankles shackled, and was accompanied by Assistant Federal Public Defender Peyton Lee.
He had been brought to the hearing from the Oregon State Hospital located in Junction City, as indicated by court records.
Throughout the proceedings, Banks expressed to Judge Baggio that he understood and agreed to the terms set forth.
In a previous case from 2007, Banks had also been found not guilty by reason of insanity and was placed into psychiatric care after being convicted for a similar felony involving possession of a firearm.
His troubling history includes a federal conviction from 2004 for being a felon in possession of a firearm, as well as a drug-related conviction from 1997.
In 2021, Judge Anna J. Brown permitted Banks’ conditional release to a halfway house, based on her belief he could stabilize with the right regimen of psychotropic medication.
However, Banks’ time in the halfway house came to an alarming end when he was living at a residential group facility run by Cameron Care Inc., where he committed the murders of three men over a span of three months.
The sequence of events began with the shooting of Isaiah Hurst, 39, on January 2, 2022. Hurst was found dead in his car that had crashed into a tree after he was shot while pausing to let a jogger cross the street.
On February 2, 2022, Jeff Ramirez, 35, was struck in the torso by a bullet that pierced the cab of his pickup truck, leading to his death behind the wheel of his Honda Ridgeline.
The third victim, Mark Johnson, 55, was fatally shot on March 1, 2022, near Dawson Park next to his black SUV.
In addition to these lethal incidents, Banks also shot and injured three others who fortunately survived the attacks.
Records from the halfway house indicated that Banks had alarmed staff by skipping his medication dosage multiple times each month.
Staff members communicated their concerns to his federal probation officer nearly thirty times before the tragic series of killings, expressing fears that Banks could become ‘violent and unpredictable’ if off his medications.
On March 2, 2022, police arrested Banks after stopping his vehicle near Northwest Glisan Street and Broadway.
During the stop, authorities discovered a firearm in plain sight on the front passenger seat of his car.
The pistol confiscated was identified as a Raven Arms P-25 .25-caliber firearm, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds.
In total, two firearms were seized from Banks; the second weapon, a 9mm handgun found in his room at the group home, was linked through forensic ballistic analysis to the three murders.
The federal case against Banks was primarily based on the illegal possession of the .25-caliber pistol rather than the 9mm handgun associated with the killings.
Judge Baggio’s ruling on Tuesday declared Banks not guilty by reason of insanity concerning charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a firearm as a person prohibited due to his mental health history.
In contrast, in a state court decision made in April, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Katharine von Ter Stegge found Banks guilty, with the exception of insanity, on 15 counts, including three charges of second-degree murder with a firearm, multiple counts of attempted murder with a firearm, as well as various charges related to assault and unlawful weapon use.
Banks will now be committed to the jurisdiction of the state Psychiatric Security Review Board for life, but should the board determine in the future that he no longer suffers from a mental disorder, his release may be considered.
According to Judge Baggio, if the state decides to release Banks, he would then be transferred to a federal medical center for an indefinite duration, until a federal judge can ascertain whether he still poses a significant risk of harm to others or property.
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