This incredibly bizarre crime highlights the need for advisors to be extra selective about the policies they choose to write
Tennessee resident David Wi faces a charge of criminal conspiracy to commit homicide while his gun-toting friend, Zackery Alexander, faces a charge of criminal homicide in this bizarre case of murder for insurance.
Wi, a soldier at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee, allegedly hired Alexander, also a soldier, to kill his two-year-old stepson, Joseph Bankston. Estranged from his wife, Alice Bankston, since December 2014, Wi took out a life insurance policy on his stepson, the couple’s daughter they had together and his ex-wife.
Little Joseph, caught in the middle of a custody battle between his mom and stepdad, was allegedly shot and killed while staying with Bankston’s mother. Her boyfriend, Brandon Jimenez, happened to be visiting at the time and was also by Alexander but survived his wounds.
If not for an accurate description of the shooter provided to police by the boyfriend, it’s possible that the alleged killer and his co-conspirator would have gotten away with this heinous crime.
Increasingly, murder for insurance has become a regular happening in the news.
Only last month a Colorado man was found guilty of murdering his second wife of 12 years so that he could collect on his wife’s $4.7 million life insurance policy. During the husband’s trial prosecutors attempted to prove that the man also killed his first wife in 1995 in order to collect on $600,000 in life insurance taken out on her life. The husband was never charged as the earlier situation was ruled an accident.
The jury took less than two days to find the Colorado man guilty.
Here in Canada a Brockville woman went to trial earlier this year for allegedly killing her ailing husband by poisoning him in order to collect on a $200,000 life insurance policy. Ultimately, the wife pleaded guilty in June to the lesser charge of manslaughter for not calling for help when the husband was clearly in need of medical attention.
The woman, a former Prescott councillor, got 8 years for her failure to act. It’s unknown whether she was able to collect on the life insurance.
Wi, a soldier at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee, allegedly hired Alexander, also a soldier, to kill his two-year-old stepson, Joseph Bankston. Estranged from his wife, Alice Bankston, since December 2014, Wi took out a life insurance policy on his stepson, the couple’s daughter they had together and his ex-wife.
Little Joseph, caught in the middle of a custody battle between his mom and stepdad, was allegedly shot and killed while staying with Bankston’s mother. Her boyfriend, Brandon Jimenez, happened to be visiting at the time and was also by Alexander but survived his wounds.
If not for an accurate description of the shooter provided to police by the boyfriend, it’s possible that the alleged killer and his co-conspirator would have gotten away with this heinous crime.
Increasingly, murder for insurance has become a regular happening in the news.
Only last month a Colorado man was found guilty of murdering his second wife of 12 years so that he could collect on his wife’s $4.7 million life insurance policy. During the husband’s trial prosecutors attempted to prove that the man also killed his first wife in 1995 in order to collect on $600,000 in life insurance taken out on her life. The husband was never charged as the earlier situation was ruled an accident.
The jury took less than two days to find the Colorado man guilty.
Here in Canada a Brockville woman went to trial earlier this year for allegedly killing her ailing husband by poisoning him in order to collect on a $200,000 life insurance policy. Ultimately, the wife pleaded guilty in June to the lesser charge of manslaughter for not calling for help when the husband was clearly in need of medical attention.
The woman, a former Prescott councillor, got 8 years for her failure to act. It’s unknown whether she was able to collect on the life insurance.
