A Norton and Medford man has pled guilty in Fall River Superior Court on charges connected to the November 7, 2022, fatal crash on Kingman Road in Taunton which claimed the life of a 54-year-old Middleborough woman and Fall River native.
Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn’s Office stated after Hector Bannister-Sanchez’s arraignment in January of 2023 that Assistant District Attorney Kaitlyn O’Leary told the court that the defendant was the target of a four-month long drug investigation leading up to the events of November 7th. Investigators had sought and obtained a court-authorized GPS for Bannister-Sanchez’s Toyota Highlander. On November 7, 2022, investigators intended to stop Bannister-Sanchez as part of the culmination of their investigation. After conducting surveillance of him traveling to his alleged stash house in Norton, they believed he was driving to complete a drug deal with a frequent customer in Middleboro. As investigators parked behind him and approached Bannister-Sanchez’s vehicle, they announced their presence as police and demanded that he show his hands. However, rather than stop, Bannister-Sanchez reportedly fled.
O’Leary told the court Bannister-Sanchez drove through a front yard, crashed into the property’s front landing, and forced a state trooper to get out of the way in order to avoid being hit. Despite not being chased by police, Bannister-Sanchez allegedly proceeded to drive at sustained and extremely high speeds as he fled through Middleboro, Lakeville, and ultimately into Taunton. The court-authorized GPS affixed to his vehicle showed him traveling at speeds as high as 101 MPH towards the beginning of his flight and 84.3 MPH as he approached the turn onto Kingman Street in Taunton, where the crash occurred…