Man Convicted in Strangulation Death of Friend

June 10, 2021 – A 39-year-old man was convicted Thursday of voluntary manslaughter in the 2019 death of a friend who was found strangled with a string of Christmas lights, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

A Criminal Court jury convicted defendant Hans Banks after a trial that began Monday. He remains in jail and will be sentenced later by Judge James Lammey Jr.

According to testimony, on July 7, 2019, Banks and victim Joseph Hurdle, 59, got into an altercation at their apartment on East Cabana Circle near University Street and Vollintine Avenue.

Banks said that during the incident, he struck Hurdle with an ashtray and then strangled him with a string of Christmas tree lights.

The case was handled by Chief Prosecutor Greg Gilbert and Asst. Dist. Atty. Michael Haas of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit which handles cases of domestic assault and homicide committed by intimate partners.

This was the first jury trial to be held in Shelby County in more than a year because of restrictions invoked during the COVID-19 pandemic.