LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Rapper Lil Durk was found not guilty Friday of allegedly orchestrating a murder-for-hire scheme connected to the fatal shooting of a man near the Beverly Center four years ago.
Following three days of deliberations, a Los Angeles federal jury acquitted the Grammy-winning artist of every charge tied to the 2022 ambush shooting.
Prosecutors alleged at trial that Lil Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, initiated a plan to track down and kill Tyquian Bowman, the Atlanta rapper known as Quando Rondo.
Federal prosecutors said Banks planned, directed and financed the alleged attempt on Bowman’s life in retaliation for the 2020 killing of Banks’ close friend, Dayvon “King Von” Bennett, by one of Bowman’s associates.
The alleged plot instead led to the mistaken killing of Bowman’s cousin, 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson, who was shot in broad daylight on Aug. 19, 2022, prosecutors said.
Banks, 33, entered not guilty pleas through his defense team, which maintained during opening statements that he had no role in the alleged conspiracy. His attorneys contended that former personal assistant Kavon Grant, not Banks, arranged the intended killing.
Banks and two other defendants pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy, stalking with a dangerous weapon, stalking resulting in death and two murder-for-hire-related counts.
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His co-defendants, Deandre Dontrell Wilson and David Brian Lindsey, were convicted of stalking and conspiracy to commit stalking, though jurors acquitted them on the remaining counts. Banks was cleared of all charges.
Banks remains in custody as he awaits a separate federal trial next month on multiple racketeering murder and firearms charges.
Had he been convicted on every count in this case, Banks could have faced life in federal prison.
Banks won a Grammy in 2024 for his hit song “All My Life,” which features J. Cole.
A crowd of jubilant Lil Durk fans celebrated outside of the downtown Los Angeles courtroom after the verdict was read on Friday evening.
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