Lil Durk Acquitted of Murder-for-Hire, Still Faces Second Federal Trial in 2027

Rapper Lil Durk has been found not guilty of murder for hire over claims he ordered the killing of fellow rapper Quando Rondo.

The verdict, for Durk Banks, followed a two-week federal trial. Prosecutors had accused him of putting a bounty on Quando Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von, according to Billboard.

The acquittal does not free him. Lil Durk remains in custody pending a second federal trial, as reported by ABC7 News.

He still faces one criminal count under the federal Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Activity statute, known as VICAR. The law covers violent crimes said to have been committed to support a racketeering group.

US District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald had excluded that charge from the murder-for-hire trial. It will now be heard separately.

A court order dated 30 September moved that second trial from 5 October 2026 to 30 August 2027.

The VICAR charge centres on Only the Family, known as OTF, Lil Durk’s Chicago-based record label. Prosecutors allege that a subset of people connected to OTF operated as a violent gang.

Prosecutors allege the enterprise involved three violent incidents. They cite the 2022 shooting of Quando Rondo in Los Angeles, an alleged 2022 killing of a rival gang member in Chicago, and an attempted murder in Atlanta in 2019.

Quando Rondo survived the Los Angeles shooting at a petrol station in 2022. His cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, also known as Lul Pab, was killed in the attack.

Lil Durk was previously arrested over the 2019 Atlanta incident. Those charges were later dropped.