Grammy-winning Chicago rapper Lil Durk has pleaded not guilty to charges he directed a murder-for-hire plot that led to the shooting death of Georgia rapper Quando Rondo’s cousin at a Los Angeles gas station two years ago.
The 32-year-old artist, born Durk Banks, entered the plea Thursday and was remanded to a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles after receiving a tentative trial date of Jan. 7, 2025, online records and a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed.
Prosecutors have asked that Banks be held until trial, claiming there’s a “serious risk defendant will flee.” In court filings, federal authorities say Banks was trying to board a private jet bound for Italy when he was arrested last month in Miami. They claim he had been booked on separate one-way flights to Dubai and Switzerland that same day.
Prominent defense attorney Drew Findling, known for his representation of other high-profile clients including Cardi B, NBA YoungBoy and Donald Trump, has filed to appear as one of Banks’ lawyers. He had no immediate comment Friday. Banks is due back in court Nov. 25 for a status conference. A detention hearing is set for Dec. 2.
According to a Nov. 7 superseding indictment, Banks “was the leader” of a hip-hop collective founded in Chicago in 2010 called Only the Family, or OTF. While the group produced and sold music, it also allegedly “engaged in violence, including murder and assault,” largely at Banks’ “direction,” the indictment states.
Prosecutors claim Banks bears responsibility for the murder at the center of the indictment because he allegedly was seeking retaliation for the fatal shooting of rising Chicago rapper King Von, born Dayvon Bennett, outside an Atlanta club on Nov. 6, 2020. Bennett and Banks were childhood friends, with Banks signing Bennett to his label in 2018, the same year Bennett released his debut single, “Crazy Story.”
Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Terrel Bowman, purportedly was involved in an “altercation” with Bennett shortly before one of Bowman’s associates pulled out a gun and shot Bennett multiple times, prosecutors allege. “After the murder, defendant Banks made clear, in coded language, that he would pay a bounty or monetary reward, and/or make payment to anyone who took part in killing [Bowman] for his role in [Bennett’s] murder,” the superseding indictment states. (Banks was previously was charged in a standalone complaint.)
Prosecutors allege Banks and his co-defendants traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles in August 2022 after they learned Bowman was staying in a hotel there. They allege Banks’ co-defendants “used two vehicles and worked in tandem to track, stalk, and attempt to murder [Bowman] for hours,” culminating in the gas station shooting. The gunmen fired at least 18 rounds at Bowman’s vehicle, striking and killing Bowman’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, who was traveling with him, authorities allege.
Prosecutors claim they have banking and flight records that link a Banks associate to the travel plans. They say that around the time the one-way flights were purchased, Banks allegedly told the associate, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit [sic] me.”
The same day several of the men traveled to California, Banks flew in on a private jet with another alleged co-conspirator, Kavon London Grant, 28, the indictment claims. Grant allegedly purchased ski masks for the shooters and used a credit card in Banks’ name to pay for the other men’s hotel room, prosecutors allege.
When Banks’ co-defendants were arrested in Chicago the morning of Oct. 24, Banks purportedly planned to leave country, an FBI agent alleged in an affidavit filed last month. The agent said that “shortly after” officials made the Chicago arrests and started executing search warrants, the FBI was notified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that Banks had been booked on separate one-way flights to Dubai and Switzerland, leaving out of the Miami area. He did not board either flight and was arrested in the vicinity of a Miami airport an hour before his private jet bound for Italy was set to depart, the agent wrote.
If convicted as charged, Banks is facing up to life in federal prison.
“Mr. Banks is charged with orchestrating a cold-blooded murder that resulted in the death of a rival’s family member,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “Not only that, the shooting occurred in the open, at a gas station at a busy intersection, endangering many others in the area. Violent gun crime of this sort is devastating to our community and we will have zero-tolerance for those who perpetrate such callous acts of violence.”
From Rolling Stone US
