A judge is struggling with whether to let out Lil Durk on bail following his acquittal on murder-for-hire charges but before a second racketeering trial.
The “All My Life” hitmaker (Durk Banks) was found not guilty in September of taking out a hit on rival rapper Quando Rondo. Durk’s lawyers are now pushing for his release after more than two years in jail, offering to put up all his future music royalties as bond and even getting letters of support from Jay-Z and J. Cole.
Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald weighed the request during a Wednesday (Nov. 4) court hearing, attended by Billboard. The judge was torn, given that Durk attempted to flee to Dubai before his original 2024 arrest and still faces another trial next summer for allegedly operating his Only the Family (OTF) label as a violent gang.
On the one hand, Judge Fitzgerald said “not that much has changed” for Durk and that “even an innocent person would be tempted to flee” at this point. On the other, however, he noted that Durk “has a very strong incentive now to let the legal system play out, so the acquittals really do change the calculation a great deal.”
“It’s a question of psychology,” said the judge. “Would he flee?”
Durk’s team says the answer is no. His attorney Drew Findling argued Wednesday that the rapper “understands how the system works” and wants a second jury to find him not guilty again. Fellow defense lawyer Christy O’Connor also pointed out that the proposed bond package truly encompasses all his future earnings on his music, so he would be left destitute if he went on the lam.
Prosecutors want Durk to stay in jail. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Weiner said Durk has “absolutely no respect for authority” and would “run amok” if let out. Weiner also pointed out that Durk could simply flee to a non-extradition country and make new music. “He could accumulate more wealth,” said the prosecutor.
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Judge Fitzgerald ultimately took the bail motion under submission and will issue a written ruling in due course.
Durk was acquitted of murder-for-hire following a two-week trial, in which prosecutors accused him of putting a bounty on Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend and collaborator King Von. Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but his cousin Saviay’a Robinson, also known as Lul Pab, was killed in the crossfire.
The remaining count faced by Durk is under the federal Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Activity (VICAR) statute, which broadly criminalizes gang violence. Prosecutors want to argue at next year’s second trial that Durk used his leadership role in OTF to orchestrate the Rondo incident, as well as a 2019 shooting in Atlanta and another 2022 killing in Chicago.
Durk’s attorneys say the VICAR count is “incredibly weak” and that everything related to the Rondo shooting should be excluded under double-jeopardy rules. This is a complex legal question that the attorneys will litigate in court papers over the next several months.
