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HOUSTON - A Dallas man was sentenced to 63 years in prison for a murder at a Houston bowling alley in 2022, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.
"We know that people are going to have arguments, they are going to have fights, but it is never appropriate to use a gun to settle an argument," Ogg said. "The victim’s family lost a beloved family member and two little girls lost their father, and the right result in this case is that the killer spends decades in prison."
Dionate Desmond Banks, 31, was convicted of killing Gregory Shead, a 24-year-old father of two daughters, after an altercation between two groups of people outside the Bowlero-Houston bowling alley on Bunker Hill just south of the Katy Freeway on August 14, 2022.
The following accounts were seen on surveillance video which led to the conviction.
Banks was with one group of people and Shead was with a different group, and they were all at the arcade, bowling alley, and bar late into the night.
As both groups were leaving, women from the different groups confronted each other and a small fight broke out.
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Shead, the shooting victim, can be seen on surveillance video trying to de-escalate the situation at least twice and trying to get his group to leave, even walking out to his car.
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When a woman hit his aunt, Shead ran back to come to her aid and quickly became engaged in the fight.
That is when Banks stepped forward with a pistol and shot Shead in the back, striking his heart. Shead then fell, and Banks shot him in the head.
Banks and others then fled, and officers with the Houston Police Department responded and investigated the murder.
In the days after the shooting, Banks took to social media to claim that the killing was in self-defense and that he was the victim. He also searched the internet to read the Texas Penal Code for self-defense.
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After the HPD identified him as the shooter and brought him in to be interviewed, he made up facts about the incident because he did not realize it had been captured on video.
Banks was convicted of killing Shead in a six-day trial.
"This defendant always tries to play the victim, and there is never any accountability or remorse, including when he testified," Assistant District Attorney Keegan Childers said. "This man has no sense of right and wrong."
Assistant District Attorney Billy Morian agreed and said they asked the jury to sentence Banks to 63 years in prison. He said it was based on a formula that included the fact that Shead would likely have lived to be 77 years old, which is 53 more years of life.
They also asked jurors to add five more years because Banks tried to avoid any responsibility when he testified and added five years on top of that for the way he taunted Shead’s friends and family on social media after the shooting.
"We asked for 63 years, and they returned with the verdict of 63 years, which is appropriate in this case," Morian said. "The victim’s family has been present throughout the trial, and it is just heartbreaking to see what they have gone through."
Under Texas law, Banks will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 30 years in prison.