[PHOTO CREDIT: Vickie Chilla Photography]
[Original Publish Date: 05/11/20]
EUSTIS, Florida — A Mount Dora woman with 10 driver license suspensions is facing 14 criminal charges after she was accused of attacking her “baby daddy,” ramming the SUV he tried to escape in and rolling over the stolen vehicle she was driving.
Shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, Eustis Police responded to single-vehicle rollover crash at the intersection of Eustis Street and Wilt Avenue. Kinsey Kenya Banks, 36, told police she was a passenger in the car and the man driving fled the scene after the crash. Witnesses and surveillance video from a nearby home told a different story. According to an arrest affidavit, the silver 2000 Mercury can be seen traveling northbound at a high rate of speed down Eustis Street, which has a posted speed limit of 25 mph, when it attempts to make a right-hand turn on Wilt Avenue, rolls on its side and strikes a stop sign.
Banks is then seen exiting the driver’s side window, and no one else was in the vehicle, the arresting officer noted in the affidavit.
Through its investigation, Eustis Police found that Banks went to a home on East McDonald Avenue she had previously been trespassed from and started screaming at her child’s father and punched him in the face — the same man she claimed was driving the Mercury when it rolled over. A woman, who is also the mother of one of the man’s children pulled up to collect a child support check with her boyfriend and six children and the victim jumped in to the woman’s SUV to escape Banks, according to the report. Banks screamed and started pounding her fists on the SUV and the woman’s boyfriend backed out and drove west down McDonald Avenue. Banks got into the silver Mercury and followed the SUV down several streets and rammed the SUV from behind twice, according to the investigation.
The driver of the SUV turned into an abandoned parking lot at East Orange Avenue and North Dewey Street and law enforcement was called. Banks entered the parking lot after the call to law enforcement and sideswiped the SUV with the Mercury and left. After Banks left, a man flagged the SUV down on East Magnolia Avenue and told the occupants he was in vehicle with Banks and tried to get her to stop before he jumped out, the affidavit states.
Banks rolled the Mercury just a few minutes later.
On the way to the Lake County Jail Banks admitted she was chasing her “baby daddy” and drove down Eustis Street at speeds of 55 to 60 mph. She was charged with seven counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, reckless driving, burglary with battery, trespassing, criminal mischief, driving on a suspend license, grand theft auto and domestic battery. She is being held on $56,000 bond.
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Our Editor-in-Chief, Marilyn M. Aciego, began writing for Lake Legal News in 2010. Born and raised in Lake County, she is a graduate of Umatilla High School and Lake-Sumter State College. She started her journalism career at LSSC, where she was editor of both student publications, The Angler and The Odyssey. Her professional career began at the Daily Commercial in 2004 where she covered cops and courts the majority of her time there until she left in 2009. Currently, along with being Editor-in-Chief of Lake Legal News, she is the Florida bureau chief for an international media organization. She has made more than two dozen appearances on live national television, including Nancy Grace and the Greta Van Susteren show, along with her appearance on Evil Twins. Contact her with breaking news, tips, and feedback by sending an e-mail to 352Tips@gmail.com. You can also contact us on our Facebook page — and make sure you “Like” and “Follow us” there. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bonnie Whicher]
