Gang member sentenced to more than 37 years

Jace Radke

Monday, Jan. 10, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

A convicted Rolling 60s gang member was sentenced to more than 37 years in federal prison for violent crimes he committed as part of a racketeering organization.

Leland Devine Banks, 25, was sentenced Friday to 450 months in prison without the possibility of parole by U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson Friday.

Banks, also known as "Lee-Macc," was convicted by a jury in October of attempted murder and assault in aid of racketeering and three firearms charges after attempting to shoot another man whose girlfriend had allegedly disrespected Banks.

Prosecutors said that in January 2004 Banks fired six shots from a .22-caliber rifle at Kenny Gilmore. Banks was perched sniper-style on the roof of the Kimberly Place Apartments across the street from a 7-Eleven at Sierra Vista Drive and Cambridge Street and fired at Gilmore when he went to the store, prosecutors said.

No one was injured in the shooting, and Banks was later arrested.

The jury deliberated for about nine hours on the case before returning a guilty verdict. Federal sentencing guidelines called for Banks to be sentenced to anywhere from 20 to 60 years in prison.

Banks could face additional charges connected to an FBI investigation into an alleged escape attempt at the Las Vegas Detention Center at Stewart Avenue and Mojave Road.

Last month a nurse who worked at the jail entered a plea of not guilty to charges that she helped Banks in planning an escape attempt between March and November. She is alleged to have slipped Banks a pair of pliers and a pair of bolt-cutters.

Although he is a convicted member of the Rolling 60s, Banks is not among a group of 22 men indicted in August 2003 on racketeering charges. The 88-count indictment alleges violent crimes and drug trafficking operations run by the Rolling 60s.

Seven of the 22 have pleaded guilty, and some of those seven have been sentenced to prison terms. The remaining 15 defendants are tentatively scheduled to go to trial this summer.

In all federal prosecutors have indicted 42 members or associates of the Rolling 60s, and 23 of those defendants have been convicted, federal officials said.