Darryl Bynes, left, and Omarian Banks. (Bynes screenshot from ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV Banks photo from his GoFundMe site)
A Georgia man convicted of killing a 19-year-old who accidentally knocked on the wrong door, thinking it was his girlfriend’s apartment, will spend the rest of his life behind bars, prosecutors said.
Darryl Bynes, 36, was sentenced to life plus 15 years on Tuesday in the March 29, 2019, killing of Omarian Banks, officials said. The sentencing comes after Bynes was convicted last week of all counts — murder, felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal damage to property in the first degree, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis.
The shooting happened when Banks had gotten dropped off after a Lyft ride and knocked on Bynes’ door at about 12:30 a.m. that morning.
Banks’ girlfriend told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he called her and told her to open the door.
“But when I opened the door, I didn’t see him,” she told the paper. “Then I hear one gunshot, and after that, I hear him yell, ‘I’m sorry, bro. I’m at the wrong house.””
She said she heard her neighbor say to her boyfriend, “Nah, (expletive), you’re not at the wrong house,” before firing twice more, according to the paper.
She found Banks in the grass with “blood all over him.”
“I turned him over, and that’s when I seen the gunshot wound to his neck and blood all over him,” she told the paper.
Bynes, a father of five, claimed self-defense, saying he thought Banks was armed and he was trying to protect his family. Police found no gun on Banks.
At his preliminary hearing, Bynes’ defense attorney Michael Antoniolli said it was a tough neighborhood.
“This is a high crime area,” Antoniolli told the court NBC local affiliate 11 Alive reported. “There’s constant violence and theft going on. He assumed everybody’s in a gang and everybody was trying to rob or steal something from him.”
Bynes’ cousin Mackayla Johnson told ABC News he is “a loving family man.”
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“He’s never had the intent to harm anybody,” she said, the network reported. “He’s not aggressive, does not have an aggressive criminal record.”
Atlanta police spokesman Officer Jarius Daugherty said the victim had walked away from the door before he was shot.
“The resident of the apartment then went onto his balcony to confront the victim,” Daugherty said, the AJC reported. “A verbal exchange ensued between the two parties and, at some point, the resident produced a handgun and shot the victim.”
Sharonda Smith, a neighbor, testified she heard Banks apologize.
“I heard, ‘I was at the wrong door. I’m sorry. I was at the wrong door,” Smith said, WSB reported. Then, “‘No, you were not at the wrong door!’ Pow! Pow! Pow!”
“And I see that baby laying on the ground. That’s what I seen,” Smith said.
Gunshots pierced an apartment across the parking lot where children lived, and a bullet hit Banks as he was running away, according to police.
Banks’ mother, Lisa Johnson, was baffled and angry, telling 11 Alive in April 2019 the gunman “wanted death.”
“You could have just let him go home. But you came out on your balcony,” Johnson said, according to the station. “He was saying, ‘OK, I’m gone,’ so that wasn’t enough, you wanted death, you were tasting blood, you wanted death, and I just want to know why?”
In an interview with ABC News, she wanted to understand “why he had to take my son’s life.”
“My son was just confused,” she said, the network reported. “He just went to the wrong door, and he was begging for his life.”
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