How a General Motors retiree found Hunter Biden's gun while rummaging through trash
Delaware resident Edward Banner says he has rummaged through public trash bins for more than two decades.
On Thursday, that hobby landed the 80-year-old man on the witness stand in a federal courthouse in Wilmington facing the president's son at the defendant's table and in the middle of a national drama.
Banner, a 40-year retiree of the former General Motors' Boxwood plant in Newport, was called by federal prosecutors to testify in their firearms felony case against Hunter Biden, the first child of a sitting president to face criminal trial in U.S. history.
It was Banner who fished Hunter Biden's Colt revolver from a trash can outside Janssen's Market in Greenville in October 2018 after it was trashed by Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter's brother and his former girlfriend.
Prosecutors claim Hunter Biden lied about his drug addiction on a federal form required to purchase the weapon, the foundation of two of his felony charges. They've spent three days exploring the excruciating details of drug addiction suffered by the president's son from 2015 to 2019 through the testimony of his former lovers, his ex-wife, an FBI agent and his own memoir.
In a trial where testimony has been heavy with sorrow and emotion, Banner's questioning, as well as that of the Delaware State Police detective who tracked down him and the gun, provided moments of levity and answered an odd question: Who was the man that was fishing through the garbage and unknowingly found a gun owned by the president's son six years ago?
'I don’t know nothing about no sock'
The final session of Thursday's trial testimony began with Millard Greer, who in 2018 was a Delaware State Police lieutenant and is now an investigator for the Delaware Department of Justice. After Hallie Biden tried to retrieve the gun a half hour after trashing it, it was no longer there.
So it fell to Greer to find it. He testified that it was common knowledge that a man frequently rummaged the trash in the upscale shopping centers in Greenville and he set out to find him. A man picking through garbage in one of Delaware's most monied areas tends to get noticed, he said.
Days later, a local business employee alerted Greer to the man's presence at a nearby shopping center and he watched for nearly an hour as Banner dug through the trash.
"I didn't count the number of trash cans he went through, but it was multiple shopping centers," Greer said.
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He then approached Banner and informed him someone had recently trashed something they were not supposed to.
"Yes, they did," Greer quoted Banner 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 stand right beside him in the witness box so he could both listen to their questions and read their lips.
Banner told the jury he'd been picking through trash for about 20 years, a few years before he retired from General Motors in 2006 after a 40-year career that included everything from working in janitorial services to production. He said he started picking aluminum cans and plastic bottles as a hobby.
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He'd take them to New York when he visited friends or family there and "got a nickel apiece." Now, however, "you only get so much a pound," he said.
"I’d get like $120 dollars, but now I only do cans because plastic, I don’t know nothing about plastic now," he told the jury.
He agreed when prosecutor Derek Hines asked if he was both saving the environment and making a buck. Prosecutors then played for the jury a video of him rummaging the Janssen's garbage.
"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 stashed the gun. Unfortunately, he'd locked himself out of his house.
"He didn’t have a key," Greer testified. "He was pounding on the door, eventually (his wife) woke up and answered the door."
Greer said Banner was panicking about not being able to get in and when the door unlocked, he started running up the steps.
"I'm like, 'Woah woah woah,'" Greer told the jury. "I was beginning to chase him down."
The lieutenant told the jury he was concerned about Banner's pace because there were "two guns" there. This prompted defense attorney Abbe Lowell to inquire about a second gun.
"Well, I had a gun too," Greer said, earning a chuckle from the packed courtroom.
Green said Banner slowed down and was calm by the time he retrieved what he thought was a lid-less shoe box.
"What I remember seeing was a bunch of socks," Greer told the jury, adding that he recalled the gun being stuffed in a sock.
When Banner took the stand, he told the jury that it wasn't a shoebox ? he actually had the firearm in an old General Motors lunchbox.
Questioning the man's memory, Lowell, the defense attorney, asked about whether it was in a sock, as Greer testified.
"I don’t know nothing about no sock," Banner replied.
During testimony, Lowell also asked Greer whether he pushed Banner on why he hadn't reported the gun to police. Greer said he asked the question, but Banner didn't answer and told him the gun probably would have stayed in the box for years.
After handing over Hunter Biden's gun, Greer said Banner had something else: a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol he also had stored in a sock. He told Greer a coworker had given it to him about two-and-a-half decades ago because the man's brother was in trouble.
“Those are some very suspicious circumstances there," Greer said, explaining he took possession of that gun to test whether it matched any suspected of being used in a crime.
"He didn't want his brother to get in trouble so he gave it to me," Banner later explained on the stand. He added he never looked at that firearm or Hunter Biden's gun until Greer asked for it.
Prosecutors contend residue of drugs belonging to Hunter Biden was found on a leather pouch with the gun, prompting a pointed question for Banner.
"This may sound 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 her how long they had been married.
"I think 11 years," he said laughing. "She’ll know better than I do."
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Hunter Biden trial: Meet the retired trash picker who found tossed gun
