Lil Durk's Team Claims Feds Used Old Lyrics as False Evidence in Murder-for-Hire Case
Rapper Lil Durk is asking the court to dismiss his 2022 murder-for-hire charges, with his lawyers saying federal prosecutors used misleading evidence to convince a grand jury to indict him.
Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, was charged last year with allegedly ordering the attempted murder of fellow rapper Quando Rondo. The shooting, which took place in 2022, left Rondo injured and his close friend Lul Pab dead. Durk has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
His legal team now claims the government used lyrics from a song he recorded before the shooting as supposed proof of guilt.
According to RollingStone , the song in question is "Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy," a 2022 track by rapper Babyface Ray featuring Durk.
Federal prosecutors said Durk's verse appeared to "celebrate and profit from a revenge murder," quoting the line:
"Told me they got an addy (go, go) / Got location (go, go) / Green light (go, go, go, go, go)."
But Durk's lawyers argue that the song was recorded in January 2022 — six months before the shooting — and included signed statements from music producers to support their claim.
"That claim is demonstrably false," Durk's lawyer David Findling wrote in a new court filing. "Unless the government is prosecuting Mr. Banks on a theory of extra-sensory prescience, the lyrics could not have soundly informed the grand jury's finding of probable cause." Lawyers Say Viral Clip Misused in Lil Durk's Murder Case
The motion also challenges another key part of the case: a viral video that appears to show Quando Rondo screaming "No, no" at the crime scene, HipHopDX said.
Prosecutors say Durk referenced this moment in the song. However, his team says this clip was never in the original video and that fan-edited versions posted on YouTube and Instagram are being wrongly used as evidence.
"Mr. Banks did not create these videos," Findling stated. "The government has failed to show any connection between these fan-made clips and Mr. Banks."
Durk's team also filed a separate motion asking the court to release him from jail before his trial. The rapper has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles since October 2024 and has already been denied bail once. His attorneys had offered a $3 million bond, backed by cash and property.
A judge has yet to rule on either motion, but the case is being closely watched due to its complex nature and the large volume of digital evidence, including 230 gigabytes of video and over 20,000 pages of reports.
Lil Durk continues to maintain his innocence, insisting there is "no real evidence" tying him to the shooting.
Originally published on Music Times
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