It was a great moment Thursday morning at Seymour High School for Tyler Banks.

The 32-year-old Indiana deputy attorney general from Brownstown had family and colleagues in the crowd to watch his second oral argument in Jackson County as part of the Indiana Court of Appeals’ program Appeals on Wheels.

“It was really great to have familiar faces and to see how far you can go,” he said following the argument. “I’m by no means at the top of my profession, but I did start at Brownstown Central High School, and I get to come back and show people that this is the important work we can do even though it is not in Jackson County.”

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The program helps Hoosiers learn about the court’s role in government by conducting oral arguments in public spaces across the state. Banks also participated in the program at Brownstown Central in 2016.

On Thursday, Seymour High School’s Earl D. Prout Auditorium was converted into a courtroom as Banks argued for the state in Tre Ron Smith v. State of Indiana in front of the public and staff and students at the school.

The argument is a real court proceeding but of instead of being held in a courtroom at the Statehouse in Indianapolis, it was held in an high school auditorium in the south central part of the state.

Besides having a Banks and a bailiff, the program featured a panel of judges, Edward W. Najam Jr. of Monroe County, L. Mark Bailey of Decatur County and Melissa S. May of Vanderburgh County.

Defense attorney Daniel Hageman argued police did not have probable cause to search Smith’s car following a report of shots being fired in downtown Indianapolis.

An anonymous informant provided details of the vehicle that matched Smith’s, and police pulled him over and found a handgun.

Smith was found guilty during a bench trial June 14, 2018, according to court records. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to have the gun destroyed.

He appealed that conviction a month later.

Banks said he felt good about how the argument went.

“It went really well, and I’ve had these judges before because they are aware of the audience, so they’re very respectful with their questions,” he said.

Banks said he doesn’t think much about the audience behind him when he presents an argument because he is so focused on the task at hand. He last argued the state’s case during an Appeals on Wheels appearance in late November at South Bend.

“I get such tunnel vision up there where I don’t even realize there is an audience behind me,” he said.

Banks said he enjoys the program because it informs the public about the judicial system. He said he also enjoys meeting attorneys throughout the state.

Banks said participants in the program stress oral arguments don’t happen very often in many cases.

But as deputy attorney general, he argues about five or six a year between the court of appeals and the Indiana Supreme Court.

He recently argued his first capital case before Indiana’s highest court last month. He has argued eight cases at the Indiana Supreme Court throughout his career.

The capital case was William Clyde Gibson v. State of Indiana following a murder conviction in Floyd County. Banks said the issue was whether the attorneys who represented him did a constitutionally good enough job or they fell below the standards of representation.

He also is arguing a case later this month about a double homicide in Washington County.

The issue in that case involves one of the jurors because a juror’s wife knew the defendant.

Those cases take a lot of preparation because of the issues and because of the amount of documents and information that has be considered. The case Thursday had about 30 pages of documents, but the others have significantly more.

“In the Gibson case, there were 2,250 volumes of transcripts, plus the other four volumes we created at a post-conviction hearing and all the exhibits,” he said. “It was overwhelming and took a lot of preparation.”

Arguing in front of the Indiana Supreme Court for the first time was thrilling and brought some nerves, Banks said. But once he argued a couple of cases, he became more comfortable.

“The first time, you can feel it,” he said. “But once you do it and get a feel for it and get to know the issues the justices care about, then you get a certain level of understanding.”

After graduating from Purdue University in 2009 and Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Banks worked as a deputy prosecutor with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office until earning a job as a deputy attorney general in criminal appeals for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office in March 2015.