Man gets life in prison for shooting Katy teen

Man gets life in prison for shooting Katy teen

By BRIAN ROGERS, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

August 19, 2011

Lee Carl Banks, a 19-year-old facing jail time for assault, wanted to start
a new life in Atlanta. All he needed was a hot car and a little money to get
there.

Jurors Friday decided to sentence him to life in prison for shooting Spenser
Vogt, a 19-year-old from Katy, for his black two-door convertible, his rings
and the $20 in his wallet.

Banks lured Vogt to his apartment on March 27, 2009, less than a week after
they met through a gay chatroom.

“When I told him to lie down (for a massage), I had the intent to kill him,”
Banks told police in a statement recorded on video. “I took a pillow, and I
shot him.”

Jurors Friday rejected capital murder charges that would have put Banks
behind bars without the chance for parole. Because he was sentenced to life
for murder, he will be eligible for parole after 30 years.

After being sentenced by state District Judge Michael McSpadden, Banks
addressed the court and apologized to his victim’s family.

“Yes, I cost a life. I was young and dumb,” Banks said. “To the Vogt family:
I sincerely apologize. I don’t know how you could ever forgive me, but if
you ever do, God bless you.”

Tricia Vogt, the slain teen’s mother, said she forgave Banks.

“I forgave him from the bottom of my heart because that’s what my son would
have wanted,” Vogt said. “I have one more son to raise, and I want him to
know that you cannot live with anger.”

The verdict, however, was a bitter pill for some of Spen-ser Vogt’s friends.

“Because there is a chance for parole, justice was not served,” said Jordan
Cromeans, a 21-year-old friend.

Fake name, real bullets

Vogt, who was born deaf, was a store cashier, got good grades at Cinco Ranch
High School and was openly gay. A day before he was killed, he received an
acceptance letter from UT-San Antonio.

He drove to meet Banks, who was using a fake name, at the apartment the teen
shared with his mother in south Houston. It was their second date and, Banks
said, he told Vogt to lie down on the couch for a massage.

“On the last day of his life, he was living the happiness of finding someone
who had finally accepted him,” prosecutor Connie Spence said in closing
arguments. “And this defendant was trying to decide where to shoot him.”

After shooting Vogt once in the back of his head and once in the temple,
Banks wrapped his head in plastic bags to keep the blood from spilling in
the apartment. He cleaned the apartment so carefully that police did not
find blood during two walk-throughs.

Banks then put Vogt’s body in the convertible to be dumped later in a vacant
lot, grabbed the bag he had already packed and headed east, prosecutors
said.

“Mr. Banks wanted to start a new life in Atlanta,” Spence said. “And that
car was part of it.”

Defense lawyers conceded that Banks killed Vogt and that Banks stole the
car, but contended that he did not commit the murder with the intent to
steal – a requirement for capital murder.

“This case is about timing,” defense attorney Ken Goode told jurors. “There
is zero evidence that, at the time of the murder, there was an intent to
steal.”

Goode said the shooting occurred because of the tension between the two men.

“This was not a crime of acquisition,” he said. “This was a crime of
passion.”

Banks was expelled from Yates High School in 2007 for threatening a teacher.
He never returned to school.

Violated his probation

In 2008, he pleaded guilty to assaulting a former boyfriend in exchange for
a year of probation. Because he had failed to comply with the terms,
including missing a class on domestic violence, his probation was scheduled
to be revoked March 30, 2009. He would have gone back to jail, Spence said.

That day, police in Cairo, Ga., pulled Banks over on his way to Atlanta.
Vogt and his car had been missing for three days.

Police found the murder weapon, a Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver, on
the floor of the car. Banks later told police where to find his victim’s
body.

Vogt’s older brother Austin, who also is deaf, testified about missing his
gregarious and talkative sibling.

Both brothers knew sign language and could read lips. They often spoke aloud
to each other.

His brother talked so much, Austin Vogt said, that he would turn off his
hearing aids.

“But he knew I could read lips, so he would keep talking,” he said.

Asked what his home was like after the death of his brother, Vogt shook his
head and said, “It’s very quiet.”

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Source:

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Man-gets-life-in-prison-for-shooting-Katy-teen-2133359.php

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