Marqueil Banks convicted in deaths of Damian Wikoff and Dillon Wikoff

An 18-year-old defendant, who was arrested as a teen and charged as an adult, was convicted Friday on multiple counts of first-degree murder in the 2020 Lakewood shooting deaths of two teenage brothers.

Marqueil Banks was convicted by a Jefferson County jury on four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of robbery for the deaths of Damian Wikoff and Dillon Wikoff, 18 and 17 respectively, according to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.

Banks is the final of four juveniles convicted of the murders. Two defendants were tried as adults and two in the  juvenile court system.

On August 23, 2020, Damien and Dillon arranged to sell a “homemade ghost gun” assembled from a kit purchased online, according to a DA’s office news release. Instead, a co-defendant, Michael Mendoza, now 20, recruited a group of juveniles to rob the pair. During the robbery, the brothers were shot by Banks.

On Jan. 31, 2022, Mendoza pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated robbery, both felonies. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 27 and faces a 10 to 25 year prison term.

In May of 2021, a 15-year-old, at that time, defendant pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and was sentenced to two years of juvenile intensive supervised probation. Another 15-year-old, at the time, pleaded guilty in April of 2022 to first degree murder and was sentence to four years Department of Youth Services.

Banks is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5.

 

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