Lil Durk will face a federal jury in Los Angeles on August 20 after a judge refused to let prosecutors delay his murder-for-hire trial or combine it with new gang-related charges from Chicago.
Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald handed the defense a major procedural victory Tuesday, ruling that the rapper, whose legal name is Durk Banks, should first be tried over a 2022 shooting that targeted rapper Quando Rondo.
Federal prosecutors accuse Durk of placing a bounty on Rondo after the 2020 killing of King Von, Durk’s close friend and longtime collaborator. Rondo survived the attack at a Los Angeles gas station, but another man was killed.
The government recently expanded the case with charges under the federal Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Activity statute, and prosecutors allege Durk was connected to additional killings and crimes involving his Only the Family label and crew in Chicago.
Prosecutor Ian Yanniello told the court that the Chicago allegations could not be separated from the Los Angeles case because the gas station shooting was allegedly carried out on behalf of a gang.
Fitzgerald rejected that argument and criticized the timing of the expanded indictment and claimed that prosecutors had more than a year to explain why the additional evidence was necessary.
“You treat that as a feature,” Fitzgerald told Yanniello. “I treat that as a bug.”
The judge said prosecutors could try the Los Angeles case first and seek a separate trial later on the racketeering-related charges.
Durk has denied all allegations.
