Pima County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to a report of a child not breathing at an address in the 6600 block of South Downing Avenue on July 13. Neveah Banks, an 8-week-old infant, was found unresponsive and was transported to University Medical Center where she was later pronounced dead.
Detectives of the Sheriff’s Homicide Unit began their investigation and interviewed the mother of the child, Stacy Anne Banks.
Banks explained that she slept on an air mattress with a one year old child and the victim, though she knew the air mattress had a tendency to deflate through the course of the night. Banks claimed that she had rolled onto her side with her daughter ending up under her arms and shoulder area. She admitted to having nursed the baby over the course of the day after she took the illegal drugs.
Banks also admitted that she had taken illegal drugs prior to going to bed the night Neveah died.
Evidence of drug paraphernalia was also found in the home.
An autopsy is pending. Banks was arrested for Second Degree Murder and was booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center.