Lil Durk — federal murder-for-hire trial

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged the Chicago rapper Durk Banks, known as Lil Durk, with orchestrating an August 2022 shooting outside the Beverly Center that was meant for the rapper Quando Rondo and instead killed Rondo's cousin, Saviay'a Robinson. Prosecutors said gunmen fired eighteen shots at Rondo's Escalade. Two co-defendants, Deondre Wilson and David Lindsey, were charged alongside him.

The trial opened on August 24, 2026. The government's case rested heavily on three cooperating witnesses who had already pleaded guilty, Kavon Grant, Kacey "OTF Jam" Hester and Keith Jones, and on Banks's own lyrics, which prosecutors argued referred to the shooting. The defense argued the cooperators had every reason to say what prosecutors wanted. Banks did not testify. The defense rested on September 7, and closing arguments followed on September 8 after a dispute over whether the jury should receive a Pinkerton instruction, which allows a defendant to be held responsible for crimes committed by co-conspirators.

After three days of deliberation, on September 11 the jury found Banks not guilty on all five counts. A juror who later gave a two-hour interview said the panel went through every exhibit, two binders and a drive of voice notes and video, before reaching its verdict.

The case is resolved by acquittal. Banks was never convicted of anything in this matter, and the board records the outcome as the jury returned it.