On September 15, 2025, a suspended Baltimore police officer was sentenced to 42 years in prison for the murder of his teenage stepson in Maryland.
Eric Glenn Banks Jr., had already been convicted in the July 2021 killing of 15-year-old Dasan “DJ” Jones before his sentencing, according to the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office.
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| Dasan DJ Jones |
On July 6, 2021, Banks and his estranged wife, Latrice Banks, attended a court hearing in Curtis Bay, Maryland involving temporary restraining order.
During the hearing the court ruled that both of them shouldn't contact each other unless there was a police officer present.
Just hours later, Latrice Banks tried to pick up her son from their home but she suddenly could not reach him after they had planned to meet up.
The only message she received from DJ was a text saying he had left the house, so she called the Anne Arundel County police to request a welfare check.
When the officers first arrived, Banks told them that DJ just ran out of the house and he suspected that he was already with his mother.
Officers already knew DJ was not with his mother because she was the one who made the call, so they decided to search the neighborhood.
However, after searching the neighborhood without success, officers returned to the home and asked Banks for permission to search the house.
Banks allowed police to search inside, but during that search, an officers found DJ Jones dead inside the wall of a top-floor loft, hidden in an attic crawlspace. Two younger children who lived in the home were found safe and unharmed.
After police found the body, they placed Banks in handcuffs, but he became aggressive, and even tried to grab an officer’s gun.
“My life is over. Choke me. Choke me. Choke me,” he said as seen in the bodycam footage of his arrest below.
Duting his interrogation with detectives, Banks claimed that he found DJ injured in a bathtub and panicked, but investigators did not believe his account.
They say Banks murdered his stepson and then tried to cover up the crime by hiding the body inside the home but the police caught up with him fast.
DJ’s death was later ruled a homicide, with injuries that showed signs of an assault.
Court records show that DJ’s mother had filed multiple protective orders against Banks in the weeks leading up to the murder. In one filing, she warned that her husband was dangerous and controlling.
“I am in fear for my life and well-being because Eric Banks keeps trying to control, follow and emotionally abuse myself and my sons,” she wrote, as per CBS News.
A judge denied the first request in late June 2021. A second protective order was granted, but it was never served because Banks was already in custody after DJ’s body was discovered.
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| Eric Banks being interviewed by a detective |
On October 4, 2022, Banks entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder and attempting to disarm a police officer in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. An Alford plea means the defendant admits there is enough evidence to convict, while still maintaining innocence.
At sentencing, State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess spoke about DJ’s life and the impact of his loss.
“DJ was a promising young man with his whole life ahead of him,” Leitess said.
“A rising sophomore at Glen Burnie High School, he was a member of the all-county orchestra as a talented violinist and attended a challenging magnet program which he said ‘made him want to work harder,’” she added.
Banks has now been sentenced to 42 years in prison, bringing a legal end to a case that has continued to draw public attention for years.
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