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Lil Durk has been acquitted of all charges accusing him of orchestrating a murder-for-hire conspiracy that targeted Quando Rondo and ultimately killed the rival rapper’s cousin.
A jury in Los Angeles federal court deliberated for three days before finding the once-ascendant Chicago drill star (Durk Banks) not guilty on Friday (Sept. 11) of murder-for-hire, stalking and conspiracy counts that could have subjected him to life in prison, according to independent courthouse reporter Meghann Cuniff. Durk’s alleged co-conspirators David “Browneyez” Lindsey and Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson, were convicted of stalking and conspiracy but acquitted of murder-for-hire as well, per Cuniff. They’ll be sentenced at a later date.
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Prosecutors claimed during a two-week trial that Durk ordered his Only the Family (OTF) crew to murder 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 case rested largely on testimony from three alleged participants in the plot who pled guilty and became government cooperators: Kacey “OTF Jam” Hester, Keith “Flacka” Jones, and Kavon “Vonnie” Grant. The trio told jurors that Durk planned for a group of shooters to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles in 2022 and offered cash rewards for the attack, though no payments were ever completed.
The jury also heard some of Durk’s music during the trial, including his top 40 hits “Who Want Smoke??”, “Ahhh Ha” and “Pissed Me Off.” Prosecutors argued that Durk telegraphed the Rondo murder plot in these tracks, such as in the “Ahhh Ha” lyrics, “Don’t respond to s–t with Von/ I’m like, ‘f–k it, you trippin’, go get your gun’/ They droppin’ locations, I’m gettin’ it done/ F–k tweetin’, we slidin’, the feds are comin’.”
Durk has consistently maintained that he had nothing to do with the shooting. His lawyers argued throughout the trial that the cooperating witnesses were lying and that Vonnie, who had access to Durk’s credit cards as his personal assistant, was the real mastermind of the plot.
Defense attorneys said Vonnie and the other cooperators falsely pinned the blame on Durk because the famous rapper was a “big fish” that they could hand over to prosecutors and, in exchange, get shorter prison sentences of their own. They leaned hard into attacking Vonnie’s credibility, playing recordings of jailhouse phone calls where he said the trial would be his “time to shine” and “perform.”
Durk’s team also strongly urged the jury not to give any weight to his lyrics, saying his music is artistic expression tailored towards commercial appeal and does not reflect any literal plans or admissions. The use of rap lyrics in criminal trials is a controversial practice that’s been banned by many states but remains legal in federal prosecutions.
Friday’s verdict is not the end of the road for Durk’s criminal case. He still faces additional racketeering counts that accuse him of operating his OTF label as a violent gang. Prosecutors tacked on these charges just two months before trial, a move that Durk’s lawyers criticized as “lipstick on a pig” and said was a tactic designed to bolster a “very weak case” with unrelated evidence.
Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald excluded those new counts from the original trial and scolded prosecutors for the last-minute gambit. The extra charges, brought under the federal Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Activity statute, could now be set for a separate trial if the prosecution opts to move forward with them.
Durk’s trial has captivated the hip-hop world, drawing droves of fans sporting in “Free Durk” t-shirts. Even fellow artists like Ye (formerly Kanye West) and mgk have shown up to court to lend support to Durk.
The Chicago native, who rose to fame in his hometown’s drill scene before signing with Def Jam and later Alamo Records, was at the peak of his career when he was arrested in 2024 while attempting to get on a flight to Dubai. He had just two years prior achieved his first his first solo No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, 7220, and his follow-up Almost Healed debut at No. 3 on the chart in 2023.
