Lil Durk Faces Federal Murder-for-Hire Trial as Jury Selection Begins
Jury selection is scheduled to begin Thursday, August 20, in the federal murder-for-hire trial of Chicago rapper Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, who prosecutors say ordered a plot to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo. Billboard
Banks, 32, faces one count of conspiracy and one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire, according to a superseding indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in November 2024. Department of Justice
Prosecutors allege Banks ordered members of his Only the Family (OTF) label crew to kill Quando Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend King Von, a fellow Chicago rapper. Quando Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but another man, known as Lul Pab, was killed in the crossfire.
Two OTF associates — Deandre "OTF Dede" Wilson and David "Browneyez" Lindsey — are on trial alongside Banks. Prosecutors say the two traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles on Banks's orders to participate in the 2022 attack.
The prosecution's evidence includes surveillance footage purportedly showing the men following Rondo around Los Angeles before the gunfire, along with text messages between alleged co-conspirators. In one text sent during what prosecutors call the planning phase, Banks wrote to an associate: "Don't book no flights under no names involved wit me."
Banks was arrested in Florida in October 2024. His legal team has stated in court filings that they spent 19 months preparing to fight the case. TMZ He was not in Los Angeles at the time of the shooting, and he maintains his innocence, denying that he ever put a bounty out for a killing.
His defence team is led by Drew Findling and Brian Steel of Atlanta, along with Findling's law partner Marissa Goldberg and Los Angeles-based defender Christy O'Connor. Findling and Steel have previously represented Diddy, Young Thug, Cardi B, Offset, Gucci Mane and NBA YoungBoy — a roster that places Banks's case in the hands of lawyers deeply experienced in high-profile music-industry criminal defence.
Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald ruled that prosecutors may present lyrics and music videos from three Lil Durk songs at trial: "Who Want Smoke??", "Ahhh Ha" and "Pissed Me Off" — all of which reached the top 10 of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2021 and 2022. Prosecutors argue the songs show Banks's desire to avenge King Von's killing. His lawyers call that a misleading twist on his words, and they successfully argued to have some lyrics excluded, though many were allowed in.
The use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases has drawn sharp criticism. Critics argue it threatens free speech and injects racial bias into legal proceedings, and several states have already banned or limited the practice for local prosecutions — though federal courts are not bound by those state-level restrictions.
What gives this trial its broader weight is the collision of two long-running tensions in the music industry: the real-world fallout of rap feuds that escalate from diss tracks to alleged violence, and the debate over whether an artist's lyrics can be used against them in a courtroom. For Banks, the stakes are absolute: a conviction on the murder-for-hire count carries a potential life sentence.
