Fatal stabbing earns plea in LV Co
11/03/2022

(KAIR)--A Leavenworth woman, accused of fatally stabbing the fiance that she alleges was an abuser, pleads to the related charges.

That happened Tuesday, in Leavenworth County District Court, where 41-year-old Eva Banks entered the plea for one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of aggravated battery, in connection with the 2021 death of Jerrold Jermaine Rhodes.

According to a release from Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson, Banks is scheduled for sentencing December 14. She faces up to 120 months in prison.

It was in the early morning hours of June 12, 2021, that Leavenworth Police, Thompson says, responded to 2508 4th Avenue, in Leavenworth, after Banks called them, reporting her fiance had been stabbed.

When they arrived, Rhodes was found with a wound on his abdomen. Fire Department and EMS personnel, at the scene, were unable to save the life of Rhodes, despite their efforts.

Banks, who informed police that she and Rhodes lived together, told officers the couple had an argument at a store, and left separately, with Rhodes found stabbed when she returned home.

However, the police investigation proved otherwise, with Banks admitting she stabbed Rhodes in the bathroom because, she told police, “she was tired of getting beaten by him,” reporting to investigators that “there was a history of domestic violence between the two of them.”

Thompson, in the release said, “Kansas does not accept battered woman's syndrome as a standalone defense to homicide, but it could be considered in the event the defendant was faced with a deadly threat or imminent danger that was contemporaneous with the killing,” but “there was no evidence...that Banks was facing an imminent threat at the time of the stabbing.”


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