Lil Durk Acquitted of Murder-for-Hire Charges, but Legal Fight Is Not Over
A Los Angeles federal jury cleared the Chicago rapper in the central case tied to a 2022 shooting, while a separate racketeering count remains pending.
Lil Durk was acquitted Friday, September 11, in Los Angeles of conspiracy, stalking resulting in death and murder-for-hire charges connected to an attempted attack on rapper Quando Rondo. The shooting killed Rondo’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, outside a Beverly Hills-area shopping center in August 2022.
The verdict closes the most serious phase of a federal case that has followed Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, since his 2024 arrest. Prosecutors argued that the Grammy-winning Chicago artist helped finance and direct a retaliatory attack after the 2020 killing of King Von, a close friend and member of Durk’s Only The Family collective. The jury did not find the evidence sufficient to convict him on the murder-for-hire allegations.
The result was not a complete resolution of the federal prosecution. Durk remains in custody while awaiting a separate trial on a racketeering count that was severed from the case decided this week. Two co-defendants were also acquitted of the murder-for-hire allegations but convicted on stalking-related charges, creating a split verdict that leaves the broader prosecution active.
The case drew unusual attention from across rap culture, with artists including Machine Gun Kelly and Ye appearing in the courtroom audience and fans, livestreamers and content creators gathering outside. For Durk, the acquittal removes the most consequential criminal threat in the current trial, but the pending racketeering case means the legal story is still developing rather than finished.