A federal jury in Los Angeles on Friday found Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk not guilty on all charges in a 2022 murder-for-hire case, capping a two-week trial that ended in an emotional scene in the downtown Los Angeles federal courthouse as the 33-year-old artist and members of his defense team broke down in tears, according to the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times.
Durk Devontay Banks, known professionally as Lil Durk, wiped away tears after the second “not guilty” was read. His attorneys Brian Steel, Drew Findling and Christy O’Connor embraced him in a group hug captured in photographs circulating online. Banks’s mother cried in the gallery as his wife, India Royale, wrapped an arm around her.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for three days before clearing Banks of all five counts: conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking of rival rapper Tyquian Bowman using a dangerous weapon, stalking of Bowman resulting in the death of his cousin Saviay’a Robinson, and two counts alleging murder-for-hire resulting in death, according to NBC Los Angeles. He had faced a potential life sentence.
Prosecutors alleged Banks ordered and financed a hit on Bowman, the Atlanta rapper known as Quando Rondo, in retaliation for the 2020 shooting death of Banks’s close friend and Only the Family associate Dayvon “King Von” Bennett. On Aug. 19, 2022, gunmen opened fire on a vehicle outside the Beverly Center shopping mall in Los Angeles, firing at least 18 rounds at Bowman’s black Escalade, the AP reported. Bowman survived. His 24-year-old cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, known as Lul Pab, was killed.
Co-defendants Deandre Wilson, known as OTF Dede, and David Lindsey, known as Browneyez — both affiliates of Banks’s Only the Family collective — were acquitted of the murder-for-hire counts but convicted of conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking using a dangerous weapon and stalking resulting in death, the AP and the Guardian reported. Those stalking convictions carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Despite the acquittal, Banks was not released. He remains in federal custody pending a separate trial scheduled for Oct. 5 on a racketeering charge that had been severed from this case, according to the AP and LA Times. “Today, the jury delivered justice to the family of Saviay’a Robinson, finding defendants Deandre Wilson and David Lindsey guilty of stalking resulting in Mr. Robinson’s death,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement reported by the AP and CNN. “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.”
Outside the downtown Los Angeles federal courthouse, crowds of supporters celebrated. Streamer FinesseFav filmed a 44-second clip of himself approaching India Royale as she was escorted to an SUV amid security and media. In the chaotic scene he asked, “India, let me get Durk for 1 night please.” The moment drew online criticism calling the comment awkward or inappropriate.
Attorney Findling, who represented Banks alongside Steel and O’Connor, addressed supporters after the verdict, telling NBC Los Angeles: “Twenty-two months ago, Durk and I made an agreement that we would make history with the greatest verdict in this country, and it happened today. Durk is not guilty of all charges. The shackles must come off, and he must walk free so that he can come home.” Banks’s father, Dontay Banks, described the day as a beautiful moment while expressing sympathy to Robinson’s family, noting he had also lost a son.
Steel is the Atlanta attorney who represented Young Thug in the lengthy YSL racketeering trial, and Findling has handled RICO and murder cases for NBA YoungBoy and other celebrity defendants. Banks, born Oct. 19, 1992, in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, rose as a leading figure in drill music and founded the Only the Family collective. He won a Grammy in 2024 for best melodic rap performance for “All My Life,” a J. Cole collaboration released in 2023.
India Royale, born India Cox on March 9, 1995, in Chicago, is a beauty entrepreneur and social media personality who married Banks in 2024. The couple shares a daughter, Willow, and she has another daughter, Skylar, from a previous relationship. She attended much of the trial in support of her husband.
The case drew heavy attention throughout the two-week trial, with celebrities including Machine Gun Kelly and Ye appearing at times and fans packing the area outside the courthouse. Banks has been detained since his October 2024 arrest, a case Hypefresh has tracked through every stage from the initial OTF Dede plea-deal reporting to Meghann Cuniff’s live coverage from the courtroom. Separate federal prosecutors have also alleged Banks ordered earlier hits on O-Block members in retaliation for King Von’s death, claims that surfaced again during the racketeering case.
