Delaware resident Edward Banner says he has been scavenging public trash bins for more than two decades.
On Thursday, that hobby landed the 80-year-old on the witness stand in federal court in Wilmington in front of the president’s son at the defendant’s table and in the middle of a national drama.
Banner, a 40-year-old retiree from General Motors’ former Boxwood plant in Newport, was called by federal prosecutors to testify in their felony firearms case against Hunter Biden, the first son of a sitting president to face to a criminal trial in American history.
It was Banner who removed Hunter Biden’s Colt revolver from a trash can outside Janssen Market in Greenville in October 2018 after Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s brother and his ex-girlfriend, vandalized it.
Prosecutors allege Hunter Biden lied about his drug addiction on a federal form required to purchase the gun, the basis for two of his felony charges. Three days have been spent exploring the excruciating details of the drug addiction that the president’s son suffered between 2015 and 2019 through the testimony of his former lovers, his ex-wife, an FBI agent, and his own memoirs.
In a trial where testimony has been charged with sadness and emotion, Banner’s questioning, as well as that of the Delaware State Police detective who located him and the gun, provided moments of levity and answered a strange question: Who was the man who was murdered? Searching through the trash and unknowingly finding a gun owned by the president’s son six years ago?
‘I don’t know anything about any socks’
The final session of testimony in Thursday’s trial began with Millard Greer, who in 2018 was a lieutenant with the Delaware State Police and is now an investigator for the Delaware Department of Justice. After Hallie Biden tried to retrieve the gun half an hour after throwing it in the trash, it was no longer there.
So it was Greer’s turn to find him. He stated that it was common knowledge that a man frequently rummaged through trash in Greenville’s upscale shopping centers and set out to find him. A man scavenging through trash in one of Delaware’s wealthiest areas tends to attract attention, he said.
Days later, an employee of a local business alerted Greer to the man’s presence at a nearby shopping center and watched for nearly an hour as Banner rummaged through the trash.
“I didn’t count the number of dumpsters he went through, but it was several shopping centers,” Greer said.
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He then approached Banner and informed him that someone had recently vandalized something he wasn’t supposed to do.
“Yes, they did,” Greer quoted Banner as saying. “A .38 special.”
On the witness stand, Banner said, “I definitely remember finding that.”
His testimony was somewhat unusual because the prosecutor and defense attorney had to be right next to him on the witness stand so he could hear their questions and read their lips.
Banner told jurors he had been scavenging for about 20 years, a few years before retiring from General Motors in 2006 after a 40-year career that included everything from working in janitorial services to production. He said he started collecting aluminum cans and plastic bottles as a hobby.
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He would take them to New York when visiting friends or family there and “get a nickel each.” Now, however, “the pound only gets so much,” she said.
“They would give me like $120, but now I only make cans because they are plastic, I don’t know anything about plastic anymore,” he told the jury.
He agreed when prosecutor Derek Hines asked him if he was saving the environment and making money. Prosecutors then showed the jury a video of him rummaging through the Janssen’s trash.
“That sure looks like me,” he said.
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During the 2018 investigation, Banner took Greer back to his home where he had hidden the gun. Unfortunately, she had been locked out of her house.
“It didn’t have a key,” Greer testified. “He was banging on the door, finally (his wife) woke up and opened the door.”
Greer said Banner panicked because he couldn’t get in and when the door opened, he started running up the stairs.
“I’m like, ‘Woah woah woah,'” Greer told the jury. “I was starting to chase him.”
The lieutenant told the jury he was concerned about Banner’s pace because there were “two guns” there. This led defense attorney Abbe Lowell to ask about a second gun.
“Well, I had a gun too,” Greer said, earning a laugh from the packed room.
Green said Banner slowed down and was calm when he retrieved what he thought was a shoebox with no lid.
“What I remember seeing was a bunch of socks,” Greer told jurors, adding that he remembered the gun being stuffed in a sock.
When Banner took the stand, he told the jury he wasn’t a shoebox; In reality, he had the firearm in an old General Motors lunch box.
Questioning the man’s memory, Lowell, the defense attorney, asked if it was in a sock, as Greer testified.
“I don’t know anything about any socks,” Banner replied.
During testimony, Lowell also asked Greer if she pressed Banner about why he had not reported the gun to police. Greer said he asked the question, but Banner did not answer and told him the gun likely would have remained in the box for years.
After handing over Hunter Biden’s gun, Greer said Banner had something else: a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol that he also kept in a sock. He told Greer that a co-worker had given it to him about two and a half decades ago because the man’s brother was in trouble.
“Those are very suspicious circumstances,” Greer said, explaining that he took possession of that gun to test whether it matched one suspected of having been used in a crime.
“He didn’t want his brother to get in trouble, so he gave it to me,” Banner explained later on the stand. He added that he never looked at that firearm or Hunter Biden’s until Greer asked for it.
Prosecutors maintain that drug residue belonging to Hunter Biden was found in a leather bag with the gun, prompting a direct question for Banner.
“This may seem like a strange question, but does anyone in your household use cocaine?” Hines asked Banner.
He laughed and said no.
He left the courthouse with his wife, holding her purple purse as the two walked side by side. At the end of his testimony, Hines asked him how long they had been married.
“I think 11 years,” he said, laughing. “She’ll know better than me.”
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com.
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