A California man who fell down a “rabbit hole” of QAnon conspiracies was convicted of premeditated murder a year after he killed a man with the alleged hope of crossing off a hit list of other registered sex offenders in his town.
On 28 October, Rory Banks, 44, was found guilty of the first-degree murder of 55-year-old Ralph Mendez, the Appeal-Democrat first reported.
The Yuba District Attorney’s Office described in a statement how Banks had set out after midnight on 12 May 2021, armed with two handguns, several knives, pepper spray and a hit list that included four names and addresses.
Each of the names included in Banks’ list were listed on California’s sex-offender registry. Though he didn’t know any of the individuals beyond their association with the registry, the DAs office said that he was “intent to murder every person” on the list, describing him as having “appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner”.
On that night, Banks broke into the home of the 55-year-old, who lived only a mile away from him, and shot the unsuspecting victim in the head and the torso, all while his 88-year-old mother witnessed the murder unfold.
The shooter then called 911 on his victim’s phone and confessed to the murder before surrendering himself to police. Officers found him standing at the foot of the driveway covered in blood with the pistol beside him, prosecutors said.
Banks’ case began to attract more attention in recent weeks as the 18 October trial kicked off and more details about his enthusiasm for the pro-Trump conspiracy theory group began to emerge.
Banks, who had a giant Q sticker emblazoned on his car, was a frequent Telegram user, the social media app where QAnoners often post about unsubstantiated theories. One such theory is that world elites are engaged in paedophile-cannibal rituals.
Throughout the trial, Banks’ attorney tried to argue that his client should be found insane or receive a less punishment of voluntary manslaughter because he reportedly “believed he was defending the community from sex offenders”.
“Evidence revealed the defendant’s beliefs were encouraged by fringe conspiracy theories propagated on social media,” the DA’s office said in a statement on the case.
Clinton Curry, Yuba County’s District Attorney, said in a statement provided to Insider that his time spent crawling through online forums about QAnon conspiracy theories and child sexual abuse had “appeared to have encouraged his beliefs and ultimate actions.”
“The evidence showed that Mr. Banks spent a great deal of time ‘researching’ the evils of child molestation on the internet and social media sites, such as Telegram,” Mr Curry said.
Earlier reports from the incident also hinted at the California man’s online obsession. His wife, Julie Banks, confirmed as much in an interview shortly after the murder that her husband had seemed plagued with paranoia for weeks before the fatal attack.
"I think he despised people who hurt children," she said in an interview with CBS 13.
Mendez, who didn’t know Banks before their paths fatally crossed, was a registered sex offender for committing sexual acts with someone under 14 years old in 2009. His address was likely discovered by his killer through Megan’s Law website, Ms Banks suggested.
When she was asked about what she could remember in the days before her husband’s attack on Mendez, she says that she recalls him fixating on the number of sex offenders in their neighbourhood.
“There’s a lot in Wheatland, that’s what he said to me,” Ms Banks said.
Banks’ trial ended on Friday with a jury finding him guilty of burglary and the premeditated murder of Mendez. A determination was also made that he was legally sane at the time of the murder.
Sentencing is set for 22 November where Banks could be handed down a sentence of 55 years to life in prison for the conviction of first-degree murder, while he could get up to 16 years for the burglary.
