Justin Banta was arrested Friday by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office on charges of tampering with evidence. He was also arrested by the Texas Rangers for murder.
PARKER COUNTY, Texas — A North Texas man has been arrested on charges of capital murder and tampering with evidence after his pregnant girlfriend accused him of secretly giving her an abortion-inducing drug and killing their unborn child, according to a release from the Parker County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) and a probable cause affidavit obtained by WFAA.
According to officials, a Parker County woman found out she was pregnant in September of 2024 and shared the news with her boyfriend of approximately one month, 38-year-old Justin Banta. Shortly after learning the news, officials said Banta told the woman that he had ordered an abortion-inducing drug called “Plan C” for her over the internet. Upon learning of that purchase, however, officials said the woman informed Banta that she wanted to keep the baby.
Per the affidavit, the woman then had a sonogram at a doctor’s office in Weatherford, Texas, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, and learned that, at approximately six weeks pregnant, her unborn child “had a strong heartbeat, displayed good vital signs and was said to be healthy by her doctor.”
Officials said that the woman and Banta met at the Black Rifle Coffee Company in Benbrook, Texas, later on the same day as her sonogram and after Banta told the woman that “he had a change of heart and wanted to meet.” At that meeting, Banta provided the woman with a drink purchased prior to her arrival, as well as a batch of homemade cookies — information investigators said they confirmed through watching footage from security cameras placed inside the coffee shop.
According to the affidavit, the woman consumed her entire drink, but did not eat the cookies. The next morning, officials said, the woman began to experience pain, fatigue and continuous, heavy bleeding. Police said the woman took that Thursday and the following day off of work, and visited the emergency room on Friday. Per the affidavit, an attending doctor in the emergency room took both the woman’s and her unborn child’s vitals and discovered that the baby’s heartbeat had slowed. Officials said the doctor’s ultrasound also revealed that the woman’s uterus was filled with a large amount of blood — something not seen on the sonogram the woman had just two days earlier.
The following morning, on Saturday, October 19, the woman experienced a miscarriage, the affidavit read.
In a statement to police, the woman said she believed Banta placed abortion pills into the food and drink he provided her at the coffee shop without her knowledge or consent.
Upon being told of this suspicion, the Benbrook Police Department filed a report on the incident. Because the woman resides in Parker County, the investigation was then transferred to the PCSO with support from the Texas Rangers.
According to the affidavit, Banta then attempted to meet with the woman the next day. Upon arriving at her residence, Banta was met by a PCSO investigator and a Texas Ranger, and agreed to speak to law enforcement about the incident.
Officials said that, during the interview, Banta acknowledged purchasing “Plan C” pills on his cell phone and offered consent for police to inspect his device. According to the PCSO, Banta was observed placing his phone in “airplane mode” at the request of officers, who then placed the device in a secure, locked area. According to the affidavit, Banta returned to the sheriff’s office the next morning and requested to obtain some information from his device. Under the guidance of one of the investigators who interviewed him, Banta was provided his cell phone and was able to access the information he needed before returning the phone, no longer in “airplane mode”, the affidavit read.
According to the PCSO, when the investigator later retrieved Banta’s phone to download its contents, she discovered that the phone had been reset and could no longer be accessed. Per the PSCO, investigators then consulted “several digital evidence specialist[s],” who said that “the only way the defendant’s phone could be in that condition was the owner would have to log onto their personal Google account from another device, which includes providing the proper access account password and selecting the proper command to conduct a remote purge and/or reset of the device.”
Per the affidavit, Banta later admitted to investigators that he had accessed his Google account after turning his phone over to police so that he could import his eSIM data onto his work phone, but denied any remote deletion of his data.
The affidavit said police then submitted a preservation order to Google and obtained a search warrant for the data. Officials said they consulted multiple data specialists on the matter, but none could locate in the data logs any evidence of a deletion command — and none were even aware that such a command might exist in Google data returns. Further investigation conducted by the Regional Organized Crime Information Center also revealed no execution command, although officials said their findings did reveal some irregularities, including no videos or photos being present on October 20 or 21, and a lack of stored instant messages following September 17 — around the time when the woman revealed her pregnancy to Banta.
Banta, who the PCSO’s press release said “works at the IT Department of the U.S. Department of Justice”, declined WFAA’s request for an interview on Monday and instead chose to provide only a short statement.
Said Banta: “I am innocent of the charges against me.”
Banta’s attorney, Michael P. Heiskell, echoed that same sentiment in his own statement provided to WFAA.
“The charges against Justin will result in a vigorous defense, Heiskell said. “He maintains his innocence as he did so when he fully cooperated and met with the investigating officers. This cooperation included him voluntarily consenting to his phone being seized by said investigators. I remind the public that these are only allegations and that Justin looks forward to clearing his good name in court. In that vein, we ask that his privacy and the due process our law provides him and the rest of us be honored and protected.”
WFAA also reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas to confirm the PSCO release’s statement that Banta worked in IT for the Department of Justice.
“The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas has no information on that individual,” the department responded in an email. “There may be another component of the Department of Justice that employs or did employ him.”
Along with the aforementioned agencies, the PCSO press release thanked the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI for “their support and resources throughout this extensive investigation.”