St. Louis Teen Found Guilty of Double Homicide

A 19-year-old's second murder trial in three months ended this afternoon with him being found guilty of double homicide.

After a two-day trial, a jury determined that Prinshun McClain murdered Terri Bankhead, 27, and her 8-year-old daughter, Da'Nilya Edwards, in August 2021 in the Fairgrounds neighborhood.

In closing arguments, Assistant Circuit Attorney Natalia Ogurkiewicz referred to the case as a "nightmare story” for the two victims, but “an intricate production” for McClain, who went about the murders as if they were happening in a horror film of which he was the director.

"He was enjoying this," she said.

Last November, McClain was the defendant in a triple-homicide trial for the murders of Edwards and Bankhead, as well as for 26-year-old aspiring actress Victoria Manisco.

On the evening of August 10, 2021, authorities say McClain stalked Manisco on a city bus as it headed down Grand Avenue in south city. McClain followed her from the bus to her home in Carondelet, shooting and killing her outside her own front door.

Prosecutors say that the morning after McClain killed Manisco in south city, he killed Bankhead and Edwards, who lived in an apartment above McClain's grandmother in north city, where McClain had also been living had been living.

Ogurkiewicz said that McClain, motivated by a desire to kill women "for sport," tied up the mother and daughter before killing them execution style.

However, in that first trial in November, the jury deliberated into the weekend before returning a verdict of guilty in the Manisco murder but deadlocking on the charges related to the killing of Edwards and Bankhead.

This week was Ogurkiewicz's second chance to put McClain away for the murders of the mother and daughter. She called the case "the truest first-degree murder you can get."

A first-degree murder conviction requires a prosecutor to prove premeditation. Prior to the killings, McClain googled information about the gun that was used, as well as the phrase "zip ties."

Police also found the victims' blood on a Lacoste bag belonging to McClain, and McClain had in his possession a television that had been stolen from their residence. McClain's phone history also showed him to be almost constantly online, but his internet usage suddenly stopped during the time when the murders were taking place.

Closing arguments in McClain's trial ended late yesterday afternoon. The jury spent this morning deliberating before reaching the guilty verdicts at 3:30 p.m. In addition to the two counts of murder, the jury found McClain guilty of two counts of armed criminal action. They acquitted him on a third armed criminal action count and on one count of burglary.

After being convicted of the murder of Manisco in November, McClain was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He will be sentenced on the two most recent murder convictions February 8.

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