Lil Durk has been acquitted of all charges accusing him of orchestrating a murder-for-hire conspiracy targeting Quando Rondo. A jury in Los Angeles federal court deliberated for three days before finding the Chicago drill rapper (Durk Banks) not guilty on September 11 of murder-for-hire, stalking and conspiracy counts.
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. 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 plot participants who pleaded guilty and became government cooperators: Kacey “OTF Jam” Hester, Keith “Flacka” Jones, and Kavon “Vonnie” Grant.
Durk’s defense team argued the cooperating witnesses were lying and that Vonnie, who had access to Durk’s credit cards as his personal assistant, was the real mastermind. Defense attorneys said the cooperators falsely blamed Durk because he was a “big fish” they could hand to prosecutors in exchange for shorter sentences. The jury also heard some of Durk’s music during trial, including “Who Want Smoke??”, “Ahhh Ha” and “Pissed Me Off”, with prosecutors arguing the lyrics telegraphed the plot.
Durk’s co-conspirators David “Browneyez” Lindsey and Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson were convicted of stalking and conspiracy but acquitted of murder-for-hire. They will be sentenced at a later date.
The verdict does not end Durk’s criminal case. He still faces separate racketeering counts accusing him of operating OTF as a violent gang. Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald excluded those charges from the original trial and criticized prosecutors for adding them two months before trial.
Source: Billboard
