Lil Durk is acquitted in murder-for-hire case

A federal jury in Los Angeles acquitted Grammy-winning Chicago rapper Lil Durk of all charges Friday in a murder-for-hire case tied to a 2022 shooting that killed the cousin of Atlanta rapper Quando Rondo.

Durk, whose real name is Durk Devontay Banks, had faced multiple felony counts, including murder, stalking and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors alleged he helped arrange an attack on Quando Rondo, whose real name is Tyquian Bowman, in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Chicago rapper King Von, a friend of Banks and a fellow figure in the Only the Family rap collective.

The jury found Banks not guilty on all counts. Two co-defendants tried alongside him, Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson and David “Browneyez” Lindsey, were convicted of stalking and stalking conspiracy charges but acquitted of murder-for-hire counts.

The case centered on a 2022 ambush near the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. Prosecutors said Bowman was the intended target, but the gunfire missed him and killed his cousin, 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson. The Guardian reported that prosecutors alleged associates of Only the Family tracked Bowman to a gas station in West Hollywood and opened fire on his car.

Federal authorities said Banks had made it known that he would “pay a bounty” to anyone who killed Bowman. Prosecutors argued the shooting followed King Von’s death outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge in Atlanta, where authorities said he was killed during an early morning exchange of gunfire.

At trial, the government relied in part on testimony from people charged in the case. Keith “Flacka” Jones pleaded guilty to Robinson’s murder and testified against Banks, Wilson and Lindsey. Kavon “OTF Vonnie” Grant also pleaded guilty and testified against the three men.

The Guardian, citing Courthouse News, reported that Kacey Hester, who said he had been a shooter in the attack, testified that Banks asked about the ambush afterward: “Did somebody get hit? How many times did you shoot? What did you do?” Banks’s defense attorneys challenged Hester’s credibility, arguing that he was seeking a more lenient sentence.

The defense also sought to shift responsibility to Grant, Banks’s former assistant, portraying him as the mastermind of the shooting. Prosecutors rejected that argument. “No one is saying he was the one on the ground with a gun in his hand in Los Angeles, but you know this story doesn’t happen without him, and it doesn’t make sense without his leadership,” assistant U.S. attorney Ian Yanniello said, according to The Guardian.

Banks, who won the 2024 Grammy Award for best melodic rap performance for “All My Life” featuring J. Cole and has received three other Grammy nominations, could have faced a life sentence if convicted.

Despite the acquittal, he will remain in custody ahead of a separate federal racketeering trial scheduled for later this year.

“While we are disappointed with the jury’s decision regarding Durk Banks, a.k.a. ‘Lil Durk,’ we look forward to presenting our evidence at his second trial, scheduled for October 5, when he will face racketeering murder and firearms charges,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.