Lil Durk has been found not guilty on all five charges in a federal murder-for-hire case linked to a fatal 2022 shooting in Los Angeles, ending a closely watched criminal case against the Chicago rapper.
A jury reached the verdict after three days of deliberations, rejecting the prosecution’s argument that Lil Durk was involved in a plot to kill fellow rapper Quando Rondo. The case centered on a shooting outside the Beverly Center in Los Angeles in which Rondo survived, while his cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, was killed.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Lil Durk arranged for a group of gunmen to attack Quando Rondo as retaliation for the 2020 killing of his friend and fellow rapper Dayvon “King Von” Bennett outside a nightclub in Atlanta. According to the prosecution’s case, the attack was connected to an associate of Rondo who was allegedly involved in Bennett’s killing.
Prosecutors said the gunmen opened fire on Rondo’s black Cadillac Escalade, firing 18 shots at the vehicle. Rondo survived the shooting, but Robinson was struck and killed.
The prosecution sought to establish that Lil Durk had ordered the attack as an act of revenge. The rapper’s defence team disputed that account and presented a different explanation for how the shooting was organized.
Defence lawyers pointed to Lil Durk’s former assistant, Kavon Grant, arguing that Grant was responsible for ordering the attack. According to the defence, Grant acted independently and was trying to impress the rapper rather than carrying out instructions from him.
Lil Durk was charged alongside two other people in connection with the shooting and faced five federal counts. The charges included conspiracy, stalking with a dangerous weapon, stalking resulting in death and two murder-for-hire charges.
The jury acquitted Lil Durk on every count, rejecting the government’s case that he was criminally responsible for the alleged plot. The verdict brings the federal prosecution against the rapper to an end with an acquittal on all five charges.
The case had its roots in the long-running tensions surrounding the death of King Von, whose killing in Atlanta in 2020 became a major point of conflict within the wider rap community. Prosecutors argued that those tensions provided the motive for the Los Angeles attack, while the defence maintained that the evidence did not establish that Lil Durk ordered or directed the shooting.
With the jury’s decision, Lil Durk has been cleared of the federal charges arising from the 2022 Los Angeles shooting.
