Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk was acquitted on Sept. 11 on all charges alleging he orchestrated the revenge stalking and killing of a man in an ambush near the Beverly Center four years ago.
Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, was accused of setting in motion a plan to kill Tyquian Bowman, a rival Atlanta rapper known as Quando Rondo. Prosecutors argued that Banks paid for a hit team to travel from Chicago to Los Angeles in August 2022 with the intention of killing Bowman, but the plan went awry when their shots mistakenly killed 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson, Bowman’s cousin.
Prosecutors contended that Banks ordered, bankrolled, and planned the intended murder as revenge after an associate of Bowman’s killed a close friend of Banks’, Dayvon “King Von” Bennett, in 2020 at an Atlanta nightclub.
Banks’ attorneys maintained that the Chicago rapper wasn’t involved in the planned hit. Instead, they told the jury it was Banks’ former personal assistant Kavon Grant – who testified for the government – who set up the intended killing of Bowman to impress his boss.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, stalking using a dangerous weapon, stalking resulting in death, and two counts involving murder-for-hire allegations.
Banks’ co-defendants – Deandre Dontrell Wilson and David Brian Lindsey – were convicted of stalking and conspiracy to commit stalking charges – but acquitted of other counts. Banks was found not guilty on all charges.
The verdict set off a party outside the federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, where supporters often held signs reading “Free Durk.”
Grant and two other members of Banks’ inner circle reached plea deals and testified for the government. Banks declined to testify in his own defense, and Bowman was not called to the stand.
In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello told the jury that Durk “used his money, his power, and his influence” to orchestrate the hit, saying the case hinged on the street rule of “get back” for the killing of King Von.
But defense attorneys Brian Steel and Drew Findling hammered home the alternate theory that Banks had nothing to do with planning or funding the attempted murder of Bowman that resulted in Robinson’s death.
Defense attorney Marissa Goldberg planted the blame squarely on Grant, telling the jury that Grant used credit cards for the flight from Chicago, booked a rental car, and bought the weapons and masks used in the shooting.
“You’ll realize there’s no evidence” against Banks, Goldberg said.
A 32-page superseding indictment named Banks as the lead defendant in the case that also charged five members and associates of the rapper’s collective, Only the Family (OTF).
The OTF crew allegedly used two vehicles to track and attempt to murder Bowman at a gas station on Beverly Boulevard, where shooters fired at least 18 rounds, striking and killing Robinson. Banks was arrested Oct. 17, 2024, near Miami International Airport as he attempted to flee the country, according to the FBI.
