Lil Durk’s former assistant testifies on rapper’s reaction to 2022 murder

Lil Durk has denied involvement in the murder-for-hire now on trial and sought to blame the shooting on his right hand man Kavon Grant.LOS ANGELES (CN) — Lil Durk’s former assistant told a jury Tuesday that after the Grammy-winning Chicago-based rapper learned that a 2022 shooting left one young man dead, his reaction was: “Finally, we got somebody.”Prosecutors say Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, and the members of OTF — short for Only the Family, both a record label and reportedly a criminal street gang — felt honor-bound to get back at rapper and gang rival Quando Rondo, who had attacked and was involved in the 2020 murder of Banks’ good friend King Von.Banks promised retribution in various songs, according to prosecutors, including one where he rapped: “If you can’t get the main n—a then you better get his guy.”“That’s what you did in LA, right?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello asked Kavon Grant, who worked as Banks’ personal assistant and “right hand man” for a few years.“Accidentally, yes,” Grant replied.Three masked shooters sprayed Rondo’s car with bullets in 2022, at a West Hollywood gas station. They missed their target but hit his 24-year-old cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, killing him. Banks has denied involvement and sought to blame the shootings on Grant.The prosecutors’ challenge is to prove that Banks was overseeing the operation. Grant testified that he spoke on the phone to Banks a number of times during the two days that the shooters were in LA, following Rondo around. During one call, Grant said, he expressed concern to Banks.“We moving sloppy so far,” Grant said he told his boss. “It’s not really planned. It’s like a free-for-all.”He also said that he took an Uber to Banks’ rental house in Encino after the shooting, and after the other accomplices had flown back to Chicago, and told Banks about the wild shooting, in which the three masked men sprayed Rondo’s Escalade with 18 bullets.“Do you think we got him?” Banks asked, according to Grant, who testified: “I didn’t know, I wasn’t there. But it didn’t feel good. They did it in the middle of Beverly Hills. That’s not normal, to kill someone.”Weeks later, Banks learned that the FBI had talked to employees of a car rental place used by Grant to rent one of the cars used in the shooting. Grant was worried, he said, but Banks told him he was “overthinking” things. Soon after that, Grant said, “I decided to distance myself from Durk … I felt he didn’t take it seriously, what we did.”Like so many workers, he began to work remotely, from Chicago. As a result, he was fired by Banks.In cross-examination, Banks’ attorney, Drew Findling — known for representing famous hip-hop artists — sought to portray Grant as brash, arrogant, even fame-seeking, mostly by playing clips of Grant’s jailhouse phone calls, which are recorded.During one such call, he spoke about his upcoming testimony, calling it his “time to perform.” In another call, Grant appeared to joke that he would testify that Banks had taken advantage of him.“You gotta make it sound good,” Grant told his friend, who laughed.For the most part, Grant maintained his composure, insisting, “I’ve been truthful.”Grant yawned a number of times while on the stand. Findling seized on it, telling Grant sarcastically, “Sorry we’re keeping you up.” Grant explained that he had been up since three in the morning. Findling said he had as well.“I don’t get to go back to a hotel like you,” said Grant, who is in federal custody, awaiting sentencing.Findling also tried to show that Grant gave FBI agents what they wanted, hoping for a steeply reduced sentence. He played a clip from a video recording of one of Grant’s law enforcement interviews, in which Grant asked if it was possible for him to serve his sentence from home. An FBI agent told him that was unlikely.“You were hoping for home confinement,” Findling said.“Same as your client,” Grant retorted.Grant will return to the stand on Wednesday morning for more cross examination by defense attorneys for the other defendants, Wilson and Lindsey. The trial is expected to wrap up sometime next week.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads