Jury Acquits Lil Durk on All Counts
On Friday, a federal jury in Los Angeles cleared rapper Lil Durk of charges that he masterminded a murder-for-hire scheme that left a man dead close to the Beverly Center four years earlier. Following three days of deliberation, the panel acquitted the Grammy-winning musician, legally named Durk Banks, on every federal count connected to the 2022 ambush shooting. When the verdict was announced Friday evening, a crowd of cheering supporters celebrated outside the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.[S1]
The government claimed that Banks, 33, launched a plan to track down and kill Tyquian Bowman, an Atlanta rapper and rival who performs as Quando Rondo. Federal prosecutors said Banks arranged, directed and funded the intended slaying as payback after an associate of his killed a close friend, Dayvon Bennett, known as King Von, in 2020. As prosecutors described it, the scheme went wrong and instead took the life of Bowman's cousin, 24-year-old Saviay'a Robinson, gunned down in daylight on Aug. 19, 2022.[S1]
Defense Points to Former Assistant
Through his legal team, Banks entered a not guilty plea, and his lawyers told jurors in opening statements that he played no part in the alleged plot. The defense maintained that Kavon Grant, Banks' former personal assistant, was the person who arranged the intended killing. In all, three defendants, Banks among them, denied charges that included conspiracy, stalking with a dangerous weapon, stalking causing death, and two murder-for-hire-related counts.[S1]
Two co-defendants, Deandre Dontrell Wilson and David Brian Lindsey, were found guilty of stalking and conspiracy to commit stalking, while being cleared on the remaining counts. Banks was acquitted on every charge. He stays in custody while awaiting a separate federal trial next month on severed counts of racketeering murder and firearms offenses. A conviction on all of those counts could have brought a life term in federal prison. In 2024, Banks earned a Grammy for his song All My Life, featuring J. Cole.[S1]
