‘Revenge in Los Angeles’: Lil Durk murder-for-hire trial heads to jury

LOS ANGELES (CN) — The fate of Lil Durk is now with an LA jury, as attorneys gave their closing arguments in the Grammy-winning rapper’s federal murder-for-hire trial.Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, and two codefendants are charged with paying associates to stalk and kill a rival rapper, Quando Rondo. When three masked shooters emerged from a West Hollywood alleyway to spray Rondo’s car with bullets, they missed their target, but hit and killed his 24-year-old cousin, Saviay’a Robinson.“It was surveillance, it was stalking, and it was premeditated murder,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello told the Downtown LA jury. It was, he added, “revenge in Los Angeles,” committed at the direction of Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, and “on his dime.”“He had his shooters on speed dial,” Yanniello said. “They didn’t stop until they rained gunfire on the victims.”Prosecutors have argued throughout the two-week trial that Banks was “consumed with revenge” following the 2020 killing of his good friend and fellow rapper, King Von, in Atlanta. Von had just attacked a rival recording artist, Quando Rondo. As the two threw punches at each other, Rondo’s friend, Timothy Leeks, fatally shot Von. Banks swore to avenge his friend’s death, both in private and in song.According to prosecutors, Banks was the head of OTF — both a record label and criminal street gang. They say he dressed down OTF members for not taking it upon themselves to avenge Von’s death, and made various promises, some more vague than others, to handsomely reward Rondo’s killers.Much of the trial was taken up by testimony of three cooperating witnesses, who testified against Banks: Banks’ former assistant and right-hand man, Kavon Grant, who helped handle the administrative details of the murder plot, and two of the masked shooters, Kacey Hester (also known as OTF Jam) and Keith Jones.One of Banks’ attorneys, Brian Steel, spent most of his closing statement excoriating the three cooperating witnesses, calling them “snitches, cooperators, rats” and saying they couldn’t be trusted because they hoped their testimony would result in lighter sentences. “How wrong is that?” Steel asked, incredulous-sounding.As for the investigators, Steel said, “They targeted Durk. They put a target on a human being. A celebrity human being. That’s why we’re here.”Steel’s co-counsel, Drew Findling, a prominent criminal defense attorney who also represents Banks, went even further, pointing to a video in which the LAPD’s lead investigator referred to Banks as a “gangster with money,” and said it was evidence of “implicit bias,” a form of racism. Waving his arms, he called the detectives working on the case “twisted” and said they had “a horrible thought process, bordering on corrupt.”Banks has sought to pin the blame for Robinson’s murder on Grant, who was a cousin of King Von’s. They say he planned the shooting on his own, using Banks’ credit cards and connections. Findling called Grant a “master of deception” who “manipulated the FBI and the LAPD,” pointing to a recorded jailhouse phone call in which Grant refers to “certain things I done on my own.” The attorney called that one statement “game, set, match” — that is, an admission of guilt.The two other codefendants, Deandre Wilson and David Lindsey, have been little more than an afterthought throughout the trial. Evidence shows they were in Los Angeles on the two-day trip, in which six OTF members and associates were flown out to follow Rondo around. Prosecutors say Lindsey was one of the three shooters; they say Wilson was in the other car, driven by Grant, which picked the shooters up afterward. They also say Wilson was in close contact with Banks and helped recruit two of the shooters.Wilson’s attorney, Craig Harbaugh, said his client was merely a “passenger” who “did nothing to make this plan happen.” Lindsey’s lawyer, Tillet Mills, described his own client similarly, noting his client never received any money from Banks and telling the jury, “you don’t join a conspiracy by being there.”In his rebuttal argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Morse called the arguments “absurd,” making the point that people typically don’t just happen to find themselves on a “48-hour stalking and murder expedition.”The prosecution’s case wasn’t built solely on testimony from cooperating witnesses. Financial records showed flights to and from LA for those involved in the plot to kill Rondo were bought with Banks’ credit card by Banks’ manager, Jason Smith. They also showed numerous text messages they said incriminated Banks. In the aftermath of the shooting, Banks texted Smith, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.”In another text, Banks told OTF members, “Jam just ready to snitch blood clear as day,” adding, “As long as we don’t break they can tell em whatever.” In fact, by that time, Hester had already begun cooperating with the FBI.“If they weren’t involved in murder, what do they have to be worried about?” Yanniello asked.Each of the three defendants is charged with five criminal counts, three related to stalking, two related to murder-for-hire. If convicted, they face life in prison.The trial has been shrouded in a circus-like atmosphere that has built to a crescendo. The audience has been packed with the defendants’ family members, Lil Durk fans, tourists and more than a dozen content creators, diligently taking notes by hand and self-recording monologues during breaks and at the end of the day. Outside the courtroom, on Tuesday, a large crowd formed a sort of demonstration, with T-shirts and signs reading “Free Durk” and “Free Smurk.” One sign read, in red, yellow and green writing, “Free the voice so he can free the world.”The 12-person jury will begin deliberating Wednesday morning.Categories / Criminal, TrialsSubscribe 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