Lil Durk Has Been Found Not Guilty

 Lil Durk was found not guilty Friday on every count in his Los Angeles murder-for-hire trial, but he is not walking free. A federal jury acquitted the Grammy-winning Chicago rapper of plotting a 2022 hit on rival Quando Rondo that instead killed Rondo’s cousin. He remains in custody while a separate racketeering case moves forward.

After about three days of deliberations, jurors cleared Lil Durk on five federal charges tied to the Aug. 19, 2022, shooting near the Beverly Center: conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking with a dangerous weapon, stalking resulting in death, conspiracy to use interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, and using interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death. A conviction on the most serious counts could have meant life in prison.

Durk lowered his head as the clerk read the verdicts, then wiped away tears. Supporters outside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse celebrated. Inside, the case that had packed the gallery for weeks ended without a conviction against him.

The Voice Of The Prosecutors

The government argued Durk ordered a hit on Tyquian Bowman, better known as Quando Rondo, as payback for the 2020 Atlanta killing of Durk’s close friend and OTF collaborator King Von. Prosecutors said an associate of Rondo was tied to that shooting. They claimed Durk used money, flights, cars, phones, and ski masks to send OTF-linked men to Los Angeles to “slide for Von.”

The intended target survived. Gunmen fired at least 18 rounds at a vehicle. Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson, 24, Rondo’s cousin, was killed.

The case leaned heavily on cooperating witnesses who had originally been charged themselves, including former assistant Kavon Grant, Keith Jones, and OTF Jam. They testified that Durk offered cash; one witness said as much as $1 million for Rondo’s murder. Prosecutors also tried to use some of Durk’s lyrics as evidence of motive after Von’s death. The judge allowed limited lyrics.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello told jurors Durk did not have to be on the street with a gun. “This story doesn’t happen without him,” he said, arguing Durk used money, power, and influence to target his “biggest opp.”

Lil Durk Defense Argument

Durk’s lawyers, including Drew Findling and Brian Steel, called the government’s case a “tsunami of reasonable doubt.” They said there was no proof Durk paid anyone, that he was not in Los Angeles when the shooting happened, and that the cooperators were “snitches” looking for lighter sentences. Findling framed it as “the bounty case with no money, the stalking case with no stalking.” Durk has denied the allegations since his 2024 arrest.

The RICO case is still live

The acquittal closes the Los Angeles murder-for-hire counts. It does not close Durk’s legal fight at all.

Before trial, prosecutors added racketeering-related charges, including murder in aid of racketeering under the federal VICAR statute, tying alleged violence to what they call a “Banks Gang Enterprise” around Only the Family. Those counts were severed from this trial. They remain pending. Durk was not released. Multiple reports say a next proceeding is scheduled for early October in the same Los Angeles federal courthouse; other reporting has also pointed to a later Chicago racketeering case involving OTF. Either way, he stays detained while that case proceeds.

For hip-hop, the verdict is a major win after years of high-profile federal cases against rappers. For Durk, it is only half the war. The murder-for-hire theory failed with this jury. The government still wants to prove OTF was more than a record label.