An employee of the U.S. Department of Justice was recently charged with capital murder after allegedly spiking his pregnant girlfriend’s drink with an abortion pill.
In a press release on Facebook, the Parker County Sheriff’s Office announced that the office’s Criminal Investigations Division arrested 38-year-old Justin Anthony Banta, an employee of the Department of Justice’s information technology department, on Friday as part of a “capital murder investigation involving a pregnant woman.”
“The victim reported that her boyfriend intentionally added ‘Plan C,’ (commonly known as the abortion drug) to her drink in order to force her to have an abortion without her knowledge or consent,” the press release stated.
According to the Parker County Sheriff’s Office, the female victim reported in September of 2024 that she was in a “romantic relationship” with Banta when she found out she was pregnant. After the victim told Banta that she was pregnant, the 38-year-old suspect offered to cover the cost of an abortion and proposed ordering the abortion drug online; however, the victim told Banta that she wanted to keep the baby.
The press release explained that the victim had a sonogram on October 17 when she was roughly six weeks pregnant and was told by a doctor that her baby was healthy.
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“Later that same day, the victim reported she met Banta at a coffee shop in Tarrant County, where she expressed her suspicion that Banta had secretly added abortion-inducing pills to her drink without her knowledge or permission, while they were at a coffee shop,” the Parker County Sheriff’s Office said.
According to law enforcement officials, the victim started experiencing “heavy bleeding” and “extreme fatigue” just one day after meeting Banta at the coffee shop, forcing her to go to an emergency room. The victim told law enforcement officials that she lost her baby on October 17 and claimed that the loss of her baby was caused by abortion drugs Banta allegedly placed in her drink.
The Parker County Sheriff’s Office believes that Banta remotely accessed his cell phone, which was seized by law enforcement officials as evidence, and “reset” the phone to delete “crucial evidence related to the case.”
According to the press release, law enforcement officials obtained a felony arrest warrant for the 38-year-old suspect and booked him into the Parker County Jail on Friday. Banta has been charged by the Texas Rangers for capital murder and by the Parker County Sheriff’s Office for tampering with physical evidence.
A picture of Banta has been shared on X, formerly Twitter.
