Lil Durk Is Going to Trial on Murder-for-Hire Charges. Here’s What to Know About the Case

Nearly two years after his arrest on murder-for-hire charges, the once-ascendant Chicago rapper Lil Durk is set to face a trial in federal court.

Jury selection begins on Thursday (Aug. 20) in the case that alleges Durk ordered members of his Only the Family (OTF) label crew to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend and collaborator King Von. Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but another man known as Lul Pab was killed in the crossfire.

Durk maintains his innocence and denies that he ever put a bounty out for the killing. Since being arrested and charged in October 2024, the rapper — who was not in L.A. during the incident — has argued that prosecutors don’t have real evidence linking him to the crime. Now, it’ll be up to jurors in Los Angeles to decide whether the case is proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

The “All My Life” hitmaker (born Durk Banks) has assembled an all-star team of attorneys for the task. He’s repped by both Drew Findling and Brian Steel, two criminal defense attorneys out of Atlanta known for taking on some of the biggest criminal cases in the hip-hop world. Between the two, Findling and Steel have represented Diddy, Young Thug, Cardi B, Offset, Gucci Mane and NBA YoungBoy. Rounding out the defense table are Findling’s law partner Marissa Goldberg and L.A.-based defender Christy O’Connor.

Also on trial alongside Durk will be OTF crew associates Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson and David “Browneyez” Lindsey. Prosecutors allege these men traveled from Chicago to L.A. on Durk’s orders to participate in the 2022 killing, charges they deny.

The trial is expected to last several weeks. The prosecution’s trove of evidence includes surveillance footage that supposedly shows the men following Rondo around L.A. before the deadly gunfire, as well as text messages between the alleged co-conspirators. In one such message, when the plot was allegedly in the planning phase, Durk wrote to an associate, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.”

Crucially, the jury is also expected to hear some of Durk’s music during the trial. Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald has ruled that prosecutors will be able to present lyrics and music videos from three hit Durk songs: “Who Want Smoke??”, “Ahhh Ha” and “Pissed Me Off,” all of which cracked the top 10 of Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2021 and 2022.

Prosecutors claim these songs demonstrate Durk’s desire to avenge Von’s killing. On “Ahhh Ha,” for example, he rapped, “Don’t respond to s–t with Von/ I’m like, ‘f–k it, you trippin’, go get your gun’/ They droppin’ locations, I’m getting’ it done/ F–k tweetin’, we slidin’, the feds are comin’.”

Durk’s lawyers deny that the rapper’s music proves any motive, saying prosecutors have misleadingly twisted his words to fit their own narrative. They successfully argued to get some lyrics excluded from the trial, though many were allowed in.  

The use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal cases is controversial. Critics argue that it threatens free speech and injects racial bias into legal proceedings, and several states have banned or limited this practice for local prosecutions. It’s still legal in federal court, however, despite a long-stalled legislative proposal that calls on Congress to change that.  

As for witnesses, multiple members of the alleged conspiracy have agreed to cooperate and testify for the prosecution in exchange for leniency. This includes Durk’s associate Kacey “OTF Jam” Hester and Kavon “Vonnie” Grant. Vonnie was initially charged in the case, while OTF Jam was not.

It’s not yet known whether Durk or the other OTF defendants will take the witness stand to defend their innocence. All criminal defendants have the right to testify at their own trials but are not required to do so. The vast majority choose not to, since giving testimony opens the door to risky cross-examination.

If convicted of murder-for-hire, Durk and his co-defendants face up to life in prison. Yet, regardless of the outcome, the conclusion of this trial might not be the end of the road for their criminal case. That’s because the group still faces additional racketeering charges for allegedly plotting other gang-related murders over the years, and these counts could be tried before a different jury at a later date.

Prosecutors filed those extra racketeering charges in June, just two months before the already-delayed trial was set to begin. Durk’s lawyers called this addition “lipstick on a pig” and said it was a clear attempt to bulk up a “very weak case” with unrelated evidence. Judge Fitzgerald scolded prosecutors for the last-minute gambit and ruled that the new racketeering counts would be excluded from the initial August trial.