{"id":59090,"date":"2026-02-27T23:18:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/lil-durk-set-for-august-trial-after-judge-denies-severance-motion\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:18:30","slug":"lil-durk-set-for-august-trial-after-judge-denies-severance-motion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/27\/lil-durk-set-for-august-trial-after-judge-denies-severance-motion\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Durk Set for August Trial After Judge Denies Severance Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tLil Durk<\/a> will have to wait until August for his federal murder-for-hire trial <\/a>after a judge denied a request by his three co-defendants to have their cases heard separately.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe decision means the Grammy-winning rapper, whose legal name is Durk Banks, will remain in custody without bail<\/a> for an additional four months before reaching a jury. His trial, previously scheduled for April, is now set for Aug. 20.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn behalf of Banks, we are fully prepared to proceed to trial. The matter was continued by the court over our objection,\u201d his lawyers, Drew Findling and Christy O\u2019Connor, said in a statement to Rolling Stone<\/em>. (The judge previously cited a scheduling conflict involving counsel for one of the co-defendants in setting the later trial date.)<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Fitzgerald wrote that Banks was indicted alongside the three men \u2013 Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Asa Houston, and David Brian Lindsey \u2013\u00a0for alleged participation in the same conspiracy. Trying the four men together, the judge said, served \u201cjudicial efficiency,\u201d given that the \u201cvast majority of evidence would be admissible against each defendant.\u201d The judge said any \u201crisk of spillover prejudice\u201d from evidence introduced against Banks but not applicable to the other defendants could be addressed through instructions to jurors.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile some of the evidence focuses solely on defendant Banks and may require limiting instructions, none of that evidence is so egregious or voluminous that it would prevent the jury from making a reliable judgment about guilt or innocence,\u201d the judge wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that the motion to sever had been \u201cconsiderably stronger\u201d before prosecutors said they would abandon their claim that a 2022 killing in Chicago was a separate murder-for-hire scheme allegedly tied to Banks. Banks has denied the government\u2019s allegations and challenged the inclusion of that evidence. (Lawyers for the three co-defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tBanks, 33, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he used \u201ccoded language\u201d to hire a group of alleged hitmen to travel to Los Angeles and carry out an execution-style killing in broad daylight on Aug. 19, 2022. Federal prosecutors say the intended target was Tyquian Terrel Bowman, known as Quando Rondo, whom Banks allegedly blamed for the 2020 shooting death of his friend and prot\u00e9g\u00e9, Dayvon \u201cKing Von\u201d Bennett.<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors allege the gunmen tracked Bowman to Los Angeles and ambushed him at a gas station near the Beverly Center, firing at least 18 rounds from multiple weapons, including a machine gun. Bowman\u2019s cousin, Saviay\u2019a Robinson, was struck and killed while standing outside a black Escalade linked to Bowman, according to the government. Durk was arrested in October 2024<\/a> and has been held without bail. <\/p>\n

\n\tAt a hearing last week, Craig Harbaugh, a lawyer for co-defendant Deandre Dontrell Wilson, argued that the prosecution\u2019s theory relied on a \u201cmulti-year narrative of violence\u201d with \u201czero connection\u201d to his client. He pointed to prosecutors\u2019 claims that associates of Banks\u2019 Only The Family crew had \u201cattempted to kill\u201d Bowman in Chicago in 2021. In an earlier ruling, the judge also allowed prosecutors to introduce Banks\u2019 lyrics from his hit 2021 remix of \u201cWho Wants Smoke,\u201d which they contend reference tensions with Bowman.<\/p>\n

\n\tHarbaugh argued that the risk of \u201cspillover\u201d prejudice would be severe and that jurors could not reasonably be expected to \u201ccompartmentalize\u201d the evidence. The judge disagreed.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a separate ruling issued Friday, the judge denied Banks\u2019 request for a more detailed charging document, known as a bill of particulars. Banks\u2019 lawyers had argued that the indictment was \u201cunconstitutionally vague\u201d and risked a \u201csurprise at trial\u201d because key facts were \u201ccontinually shifting as government cooperators change their stories.\u201d They said prosecutors had failed to provide reasonable detail about the timing, location, and circumstances of the alleged bounty offer or the claim that the killing was carried out \u201cat the direction of\u201d Banks.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\t\u201cThe second superseding indictment and the disclosures made by the government are sufficient to inform defendant Banks of the government\u2019s theory of the case,\u201d the judge ruled Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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