Lil Durk was acquitted of all charges Friday after a two-week trial where prosecutors accused him of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot and defense lawyers attacked the credibility of the government’s cooperating witnesses, calling them admitted killers who implicated the Grammy-winning rapper to avoid life sentences.
The musician hung his head and started crying as the verdict was read. His wife, India Royale, wrapped her arm around his mother in the second row of the gallery. One of his lawyers, Christy O’Connor, linked arms with Banks to steady him as he broke down with emotion.
“This was full sweep against the full force of the Justice Department and the FBI,” Durk’s lead lawyer Drew Findling told Rolling Stone before exiting the courthouse to a cheering crowd of fans. “This is overwhelming. It’s taking my breath away.”
The jury of seven women and five men took three days to return their resounding victory for the “All My Life” rapper. His co-defendants Deandre Wilson and David Lindsey were convicted of conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking, and stalking resulting in death.
Durk, born Durk Banks, will remain in custody pending a second trial on a racketeering-related charge that was severed from the first case. The remaining count, alleging murder in aid of racketeering, is scheduled for trial on Oct. 5. Banks’ lawyers are expected to challenge his continued detention in the meantime.
“We’re feeling great, outstanding. I was on the edge of my seat, overly nervous — over, over,” Banks’ father, Dontay Banks Sr., told Rolling Stone as he smiled broadly outside the courtroom. “I’m glad the truth came out. I’m glad 12 people who have nothing to do with anyone saw the truth — that he had nothing to do with this. So that was a great thing.”
Banks Sr., who attended each day of the trial, said his joy over the verdict was tempered by the loss of life at the center of the case. “We feel for the family who lost a son. I’ve lost a son, so I know what she’s going through. It’s very hard,” he said. “We do sympathize with her. That’s the thing we all want the world to know.”
Banks, 33, had been facing five federal counts at the trial in downtown Los Angeles, including conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking resulting in death, and murder for hire. Prosecutors claimed he put a price on rival rapper Quando Rondo’s head because he blamed the Georgia musician for the 2020 killing of his close friend and musical protégé, King Von. They claimed the alleged bounty set off a chain of events that ended with Quando Rondo’s cousin dead. Durk denied the allegations, and jurors found the government failed to prove its case.
In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors said Banks “wanted revenge” for King Von’s death and made that desire known to members of his Only The Family hip-hop collective, or OTF, in text messages. They painted the multi-platinum rapper as a hardened Chicago gang leader who “had his shooters on speed dial” when he allegedly decided “it was time to kill” Quando Rondo while the Georgia rapper was “vulnerable” during a visit to Los Angeles.
Jurors saw video evidence showing three gunmen, one armed with a Glock allegedly modified to operate as a machine gun, opening fire on Quando Rondo’s Escalade at a gas station across from the Beverly Center shopping mall on Aug. 19, 2022. Quando Rondo, whose legal name is Tyquian Bowman, survived, but his 24-year-old cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, known as Lul Pab, was killed.
The government’s case relied heavily on three cooperating witnesses who reached plea deals, including two of the shooters. Kasey “OTF Jam” Hester and Keith Jones told jurors they opened fire on Bowman’s vehicle expecting to be paid by Banks. They pleaded guilty to charges including murder and murder for hire, the jurors heard. The third cooperator, Banks’ former personal assistant Kavon “OTF Vonnie” Grant, who described himself as a “broker [of] high-end stolen vehicles,” also pleaded guilty and was the one who obtained the guns and stolen Infiniti used in the attack.
Banks’ lawyers argued the three men lied on the stand to reduce their own sentences. They said Grant, not Banks, was closest to King Von of all the men and was so consumed by revenge that he became the true “mastermind” of the broad-daylight ambush.
In closing arguments, defense lawyer Drew Findling called Grant a “fraudster” and “master of deception” who planned the shooting without Banks’ knowledge and later persuaded prosecutors that Banks was responsible.
“He has manipulated every single person,” Findling said, noting that Banks fired Grant in early 2023, several months after Robinson’s death. “Would you fire someone you assigned to lead a killing? That is preposterous.”
Hester testified that he was recruited for the shooting on Aug. 18, 2022, about six months after being released from prison for attempted murder. He said he was riding with his wife when Anthony “OTF Boonie Mo” Jones called and told him to head to the airport for an urgent trip to California. Hester said the call was on speakerphone and that he could hear Banks on another call in the background.
Hester also testified that earlier that year, while at an Atlanta studio with Banks and members of his entourage, Banks complained that rapper 6ix9ine was “trolling” him with taunts that he needed to step up and “slide for Von,” meaning avenge King Von’s death. Hester said Banks told the group that anyone who killed Quando Rondo would “be straight” and “ain’t got to worry about nothing.” When someone mentioned half a million or a million dollars, Banks allegedly replied, “Man, motherfucker don’t have to worry about nothing,” according to Hester.
In his closing, defense lawyer Brian Steel called Hester a “serial killer” convicted of three murders who could not be trusted. During cross-examination, Steel confronted Hester with jail calls in which he appeared to discuss telling prosecutors what they wanted to hear to avoid prison. “I’m going to do what I got to do. Whatever it takes to make sure I don’t do no time,” Hester told his wife in a May 5, 2023, recorded call.
Grant claimed on the witness stand that Banks set the plot in motion after learning Bowman would be in Los Angeles to buy marijuana. He said Banks directed him to obtain a stolen vehicle and told him the Chicago-based hitmen would fly to San Diego rather than Los Angeles to avoid detection. Grant acknowledged driving the rented BMW seen following Bowman alongside the stolen Infiniti. He said he accompanied the men to an In-N-Out minutes after the shooting, then returned to Banks’ rental home in Encino, where Banks allegedly asked, “Well, do you think that we got him?” Grant said Banks later appeared “excited” and “joyful” after learning Robinson had been killed.
Banks lawyers called Grant’s account a fabrication. They said prosecutors presented no evidence Banks ever paid anyone. “This case is flooded. It is a tsunami of reasonable doubt,” Findling said. “[This is] a bounty case with no money.”
Jones testified that he was recruited on Aug. 18, 2022, during a FaceTime call with Banks’ co-defendants, Deondre “DeDe” Wilson and David “Browneyez” Lindsey. He said Wilson told him they “had a location” for Bowman and that “Durk got a million for us.” He also said Wilson was on FaceTime with Banks as the group drove from San Diego to Los Angeles and briefly turned the camera toward Jones, allowing the two men to exchange nods.
The defense called Hester’s wife and the mother of King Von’s child to challenge the cooperators’ accounts. Shekema Springfield, a U.S. Army officer who had a son with King Von, testified that she and King Von lived with Grant after moving to Atlanta and that Grant helped manage King Von’s finances. After King Von was killed, she said, Grant told her “not to worry about it” and that he was “going to take care of it.”
Asked about Grant’s truthfulness, Springfield replied, “He’s a liar and a thief.”
Hester’s wife, Lashawntay Hester, testified that she contacted Banks’ defense after her husband took the stand and agreed to testify against his account. She said the phone call that allegedly sent him to California never happened. Prosecutors argued she was upset that Hester had agreed to cooperate with law enforcement.
Another major challenge to the defense evidence unfolded outside the jury’s presence, after prosecutors played a clip from a 2023 interview in which hip-hop podcaster DJ Akademiks asked Banks whether he was still “triggered by the ‘slide for Von’ comments.” Banks replied, “For some reason, I just don’t see those comments no more. For some odd reason. I don’t know, it might be the water.”
In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Morse called the exchange “awkward,” claiming it was “absolutely clear that he was admitting to his involvement in the murder of Saviay’a Robinson.” Morse delivered the line in the government’s final rebuttal, so the defense had no opportunity to respond.
After jurors began deliberating Wednesday, Banks’ lawyers filed an emergency motion asking the judge to reopen the evidence so jurors could see another portion of the roughly three-hour interview. In the segment the defense sought to admit, Banks said he didn’t take rapper 6ix9ine seriously. “I try not to get into it with people. I’m trying to turn all the hate to love,” he said.
To bolster their argument that prosecutors had misread the exchange, Banks’ lawyers cited a Tuesday night livestream in which Akademiks said the interview segment had been “scripted” for “dramatic effect” to promote Banks’ album. “Me and Smurk, we rehearsed this,” Akademiks claimed, using a nickname for Banks.
U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald denied the defense motion Wednesday, ruling prosecutors were free to argue that Banks was “saying in a sly way” that the “slide for Von” comments died down because Robinson was killed. Fitzgerald said jurors could just as reasonably see Banks as an outsider merely commenting on the fallout from Robinson’s death, not admitting he had anything to do with it.
“I totally get why Mr. Akademiks is furious about this. If the same thing had happened to me, I would be furious, as well, but that is not the point,” Fitzgerald said. “The jury will decide what the jury decides.”
Song lyrics and music videos also loomed large over the trial, with jurors seeing Banks’ unreleased “Redman” video on screens around the courtroom. In the video, filmed in January 2021, Banks is seen mourning King Von and then chasing and shooting an actor prosecutors claimed was portraying Quando Rondo. Prosecutors said it was evidence of a revenge motive, while Steel countered it was creative speech by a “grief-stricken” poet.
“It’s not a get-back act of violence. It’s a get-back act of videography,” Findling said in his closing argument, comparing the video to a Quentin Tarantino film in which “ears are being cut off” and “people are being brutally murdered.” For Banks, he said, retaliation took the form of music. “The get-back is a diss track. It is something common in the music industry.”
The judge also allowed lyrics from several of Banks’ songs into the trial, including “Pissed Me Off,” “Who Want Smoke??,” and “Ahhh Ha,” in which he raps, “Don’t respond to shit with Von. I’m like ‘Fuck it, you trippin’, go get your gun. They droppin’ locations, I’m gettin’ it done. Fuck tweeting, we slidin’, the feds are comin’.”
Two months before trial, prosecutors filed a third superseding indictment adding a charge of murder in aid of racketeering against Banks and his co-defendants. The judge severed that count for a future proceeding.
Scores of spectators routinely packed the federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles for the testimony. Banks’ wife, India Royale, and his mother, the author LaShawnda Woodard, often sat together in the second row. Young Thug attended one of Banks’ earlier court hearings, while MGK, also known as Machine Gun Kelly, and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, made appearances during the trial.
“This been my bro for a decade when he called and asked if id pull up and support im there no question. Free durk,” MGK posted on Twitter, now X.
