A California man obsessed with QAnon conspiracy theories was convicted in the murder of a registered sex offender he had placed on a hit list.
Rory Banks, of Wheatland, was found guilty last week of burglary and premeditated murder in the fatal shooting of 55-year-old Ralph Mendez, whom he personally marked for death as part of a vigilante campaign motivated by the right-wing conspiracy theory, reported The Appeal-Democrat.
“Banks set out just after midnight on May 12, 2021, armed with two handguns, four knives, OC spray, strobe lights, a hit list with four names and addresses, and an intent to murder every person in Wheatland listed on California’s sex-offender registry,” said Yuba County district attorney Clint Curry. “Banks did not know any of them personally, but appointed himself judge, jury, and executioner.”
The 44-year-old Banks lived about a mile from Mendez, who reportedly was convicted of committing sexual acts with someone under 14 years old in 2009, but did not know him, and his wife said he may have found the man's name on the Megan's Law website.
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“Banks broke into Mendez’s home, waking Mendez and his 88-year-old mother. Banks executed Mendez, shooting him in the torso and the head,” Curry said. “Banks then used Mendez’s home phone to call 911. Wheatland Police officers arrived within minutes, finding Banks covered in blood in the driveway, with a pistol on the ground nearby. Banks surrendered and confessed to the murder.”
Prosecutors said Banks, who had a QAnon sticker on the back of his vehicle, was always on his phone using the Telegram social media app and "doing research" that ultimately led him to conclude his community was plagued by sex offenders.
"There's a lot in Wheatland, that's what he said to me," said his wife Julie Banks.
