LOS ANGELES, United States – Grammy-winning recording artist Lil Durk was acquitted on Friday, September 11, 2026, of all charges in a federal murder-for-hire case that accused him of financing and orchestrating a daytime retaliatory shooting in Los Angeles four years ago, federal court officials confirmed in downtown Los Angeles.
The unanimous verdict followed three days of intensive jury deliberations, concluding a three-week trial in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, where the 33-year-old Chicago rap star—whose legal name is Durk Devontay Banks—faced five felony counts that carried a potential statutory penalty of life imprisonment.
Okay News reports that Banks broke into tears at the defense table and embraced his legal counsel as the court clerk read consecutive not-guilty findings across all counts, while his family members and supporters celebrated inside the courtroom and on the courthouse steps.
The federal indictment stemmed from an armed ambush on August 19, 2022, outside a petrol station near the Beverly Center shopping complex in West Hollywood, where gunmen opened fire on a vehicle transporting Georgia-based rival rapper Tyquian Bowman, professionally known as Quando Rondo.
While Bowman escaped physical harm, his 24-year-old cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, was struck by multiple rounds and succumbed to fatal injuries shortly after the assault.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Banks ordered and funded the hit as revenge for the November 2020 fatal shooting of his close friend and Only The Family (OTF) collaborator Dayvon Bennett, known as King Von, who was killed outside an Atlanta lounge during an altercation with Bowman’s entourage.
The Department of Justice presented financial logs showing commercial airline flights booked on Banks’ corporate credit card, vehicle tracking records, and testimony from three cooperating witnesses—Kavon Grant, Keith Jones, and Kacey Hester—who asserted that Banks placed a monetary bounty on Bowman to avenge Bennett’s death.
However, defense attorneys Drew Findling and Brian Steel dismantled the government’s evidentiary chain, arguing that Banks was never present in Los Angeles during the shooting, had never disbursed funds for a bounty, and that federal prosecutors relied almost entirely on incentivized testimony from cooperating co-conspirators seeking sentence reductions.
During closing arguments, Findling characterized the prosecution’s theory as a baseless attempt to criminalize Banks’ artistic success, describing the indictment as “a tsunami of reasonable doubt” and pointing out that the government could not substantiate a single financial transfer or operational directive linking Banks to the violence.
Two co-defendants tried alongside the rapper, Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson and David “Browneyez” Lindsey, were acquitted of the murder-for-hire charges but convicted of stalking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit stalking.
Despite securing a full acquittal on all murder-for-hire and conspiracy counts, Banks will remain in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles pending a separate trial scheduled to begin on October 5, 2026, where he faces federal charges under the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR) statute.
“While we are disappointed with the jury’s decision regarding Durk Banks, a.k.a. ‘Lil Durk,’ we look forward to presenting our evidence at his second trial, scheduled for October 5, when he will face racketeering murder and firearms charges,” First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in an official statement following the verdict.
Lead defense counsel Findling affirmed that Banks remains thankful to the jury for evaluating the evidence objectively, reiterating that the legal team is fully prepared to contest the forthcoming racketeering indictment with equal vigor next month.
