Lil Durk Acquitted in Murder-for-Hire Trial Over Quando Rondo Attack

9:10 PM ETDeveloping

Entertainment Desk

In Short: A Los Angeles jury found Lil Durk not guilty of all charges, including murder-for-hire, stalking, and conspiracy, after a two-week trial.

A Los Angeles jury found Lil Durk not guilty after deliberating for three days, acquitting him of all charges, including murder-for-hire, stalking, and conspiracy, that could have subjected him to life in prison.

During the trial, prosecutors claimed 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. However, Durk's defense team argued that the cooperating witnesses were lying and that the real mastermind was Vonnie, his personal assistant.

Defense attorneys also urged the jury not to consider Durk's lyrics, arguing that his music is artistic expression and does not reflect any literal plans or admissions. Prosecutors had added these charges just two months before the trial, a move criticized by Durk's lawyers as a tactic to bolster a weak case.

Lil 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. Rondo survived an attack at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022, but his cousin Saviay’a Robinson, also known as Lul Pab, was killed in the crossfire.

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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.
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.
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.
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.
Durk denied the allegations, and jurors found the government failed to prove its case.
Durk, born Durk Banks, will remain in custody pending a second trial on a racketeering count that was severed from the initial trial.
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.

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