Lil Durk has pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire in Rondo’s shooting

Lil Durk has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in an alleged conspiracy to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo in a 2022 shooting.

At a hearing Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles, the Chicago rapper (Derk Banks) was charged with conspiracy, murder-for-hire and firearms charges. Federal prosecutors confirmed to Billboard that he pleaded not guilty.

The court appearance came three weeks after the Chicago rapper (Durk Banks). arrested and charged with the orchestration of a 2022 attack on a gas station in Los Angeles that left Rondo (Tykwian Bowman) unharmed but saw his friend Lul Pab (Saviaya Robinson) killed in the crossfire.

If convicted on all three counts, Durk faces up to life in prison. The court session is tentatively scheduled for January, although it can be postponed for various reasons.

Documents filed Thursday also show that Dark has hired Drew Findling, a prominent Atlanta criminal defense attorney with an extensive history of representing rappers including Gucci Mane, members of Migos and Cardi B. Findling did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the slaughter house

In their case against Durk, prosecutors allege that his “Family Only” crew was not just a highly publicized group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal group to carry out violent acts “at the behest” of Durk. They say one of those acts was the attempted murder of Rondo in 2022, allegedly in retaliation for the 2020 murder of rapper King Von (Davon Bennett), a close friend of Durk’s.

“Banks has placed a monetary reward on an individual with whom Banks has been feuding in the name of TB,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment last month, referring to Rondo by his initials. “Banks ordered the killing of TB and the killers used Bank and OTF finances to carry out the murder.”

In addition to Durk, prosecutors also charged those they believe actually carried out the attack, including alleged OTF members Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson and Asa Houston, and Keith Jones and David Brian Lindsay, two other alleged members of the Chicago gangs .

In charging documents, prosecutors say the attackers booked flights to Los Angeles using a credit card clearly linked to Durk. The government alleges that the card was allegedly issued to a bank account listed as the owner of Durk’s former manager, and that another credit card was issued to the same account for Durk’s father.

Among other claims, the documents cite a text Durk allegedly sent to another co-conspirator before the shooting: “Do not book flights under any names associated with me.”

In the superseding indictment introduced last weekprosecutors also cited Durk’s words, claiming he directly referenced the Rondo shooting in a 2022 track titled “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy.” They claim that the lyrics link Durk to the murder and that he tried to “commercialize” Lul Pub’s death by “rapping about his revenge.”

While awaiting trial, Dark is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, a federal prison often used to house defendants before and during trial. He will appear before a judge again next month to decide whether he will be released on bail as he prepares for trial.