A federal grand jury in Los Angeles this week approved new charges against Lil Durk in connection with a 2022 murder-for-hire plot that targeted a rival rapper but instead left the man’s cousin dead.
The U.S. attorney’s office in the Central District of California announced Friday that a grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Lil Durk — the 32-year-old Chicago native born Durk Banks — with one count of conspiracy and one count of use of interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death. It also charged him with one count of using, carrying and discharging firearms and a machine gun, as well as possession of such firearms in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death.
Banks, 32, remained at the federal lockup in Miami on Friday, where he has been since his arrest last month, allegedly while trying to flee the country on a private jet. He’s being held without bond pending his transfer to Los Angeles to face the charges. Court dates there have not been set.
Banks and five others were charged last month in separate cases that alleged a cross-country conspiracy to avenge the 2020 slaying of King Von, born Dayvon Bennett, another Chicago rapper and close friend of Banks who was gunned down in Atlanta in 2020. Charged in the initial indictment were: Kavon London Grant; Deandre Dontrell Wilson; Keith Jones; David Brian Lindsey; and Asa Houston. Arraignment hearings for all six are expected in the coming weeks, according to the prosecutors’ office.
Banks is accused of offering money and “lucrative music opportunities” to anyone who would kill Quando Rondo, a Georgia-based rapper whose real name is Tyquian Terrel Bowman.
Bowman, his sister and his cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, 24, were riding in Bowman’s black Cadillac Escalade near a gas station in West Hollywood in August 2022 when gunmen opened fire, according to the charges. Bowman and his sister were not injured, but Robinson was struck multiple times and killed.
The superseding indictment also alleges Lil Durk “sought to commercialize” Robinson’s death.
After the shooting, Banks released a song that included news footage that featured Bowman’s reaction to his cousin’s death. The song, the indictment says, “explicitly references audio from a news clip taken shortly after (Robinson’s) murder where (Bowman) screamed ‘no, no!’ after seeing (Robinson’s) dead body.”
OTF was founded by Lil Durk more than a decade ago as Chicago’s drill rap scene was gaining international attention. Federal prosecutors say the group primarily “produced and sold hip hop music” from artists from Chicago.
FBG Duck, the Chicago drill rapper, was killed in a hail of gunfire on Oak Street in 2020, and his death led to the convictions of several men in a federal conspiracy trial last January. Earlier this month, FBG Duck’s mother filed a lawsuit alleging Lil Durk, OTF and King Von were involved in the shooting, as well. The lawsuit alleges that OTF operates as a criminal enterprise.
According to the initial indictment, after tracking Bowman to the Los Angeles area, Grant rented a hotel room for the co-conspirators on Aug. 18, 2022, and later met them there. He brought several firearms, including one that had been modified to operate as a fully automatic machine gun.
Grant also provided two rented vehicles to “use to find, track and kill” Bowman, the indictment stated, a white BMW sedan and a white Infiniti. The group followed and tracked Bowman’s black Escalade from his hotel to a marijuana dispensary and then a clothing store in downtown Los Angeles, the indictment stated.
A surveillance image included in the indictment allegedly shows the BMW and Infiniti following the Escalade as it traveled between stores.
When Bowman stopped at a gas station, Houston drove around to the alley and let Jones and Lindsey and another unidentified co-conspirator out to carry out the shooting, according to the indictment.
Chicago Tribune’s Jason Meisner contributed.
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