Quando Rondo<\/a>\u2019s cousin dead in Los Angeles. But Durk\u2019s defense lawyers, Brian Steel and Drew Findling, fired back, calling the government\u2019s case \u201creplete with reasonable doubt\u201d and built on cooperators desperate to avoid life sentences.<\/p>\n\n\tAssistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello gave the first closing argument on the 13th day of the murder-for-hire trial in downtown Los Angeles, arguing Lil Durk \u201cwanted revenge for a fallen gang member,\u201d a reference to the rapper\u2019s friend and musical prot\u00e9g\u00e9 King Von.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cNo one is saying he was the one on the ground with a gun, but [the shooting] doesn\u2019t make sense without his leadership,\u201d Yanniello said. \u201cDefendant Banks used his money, his power, and his influence to try to kill his biggest opp: Quando Rondo,\u201d he added, arguing that the case \u201cis not about rap\u201d but about the \u201ccode of getback.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis case is flooded. It is a tsunami of reasonable doubt,\u201d Findling shot back when it was his turn after the lunch break. \u201cThis is the bounty case with no money, the stalking case with no stalking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tFindling and Steel said Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, was being \u201ctargeted\u201d by federal prosecutors as a \u201cbig fish\u201d and a \u201ccarnival prize\u201d in a case that would not have drawn federal attention otherwise, they argued.<\/p>\n
\n\tSteel told jurors the government\u2019s three star witnesses, all of whom pleaded guilty, \u201cwere looking at life\u201d in \u201ca box\u201d when they agreed to testify. Without cooperating, he said, they stood to \u201cdie in custody.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey are snitches, cooperators, rats. They are getting a potential benefit, and the only way they benefit is if they include Durk,\u201d Steel said.<\/p>\n
\n\tBanks, 33, and two co-defendants are on trial for conspiracy, stalking resulting in death, and murder for hire. Prosecutors allege Banks placed a bounty on musician Quando Rondo, whose legal name is Tyquian Bowman, because he blamed him for the 2020 shooting death of King Von.<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tProsecutors say members and associates of Banks\u2019 Only The Family, or OTF, collective traveled from Chicago to California on Aug. 18, 2022, then followed Bowman through Los Angeles before opening fire on his vehicle at a gas station near the Beverly Center the next day. Bowman survived, but his cousin, Saviay\u2019a Robinson, known as Lul Pab, was killed.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe government\u2019s three cooperating witnesses \u2014 Kasey \u201cOTF Jam\u201d Hester, Kavon \u201cOTF Vonnie\u201d Grant, and Keith Jones \u2014 admitted to roles in the attack, pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, and took the witness stand to describe the fatal shooting. They testified Banks was involved and that the shooters expected compensation.<\/p>\n
\n\tWith Banks sitting at the defense table Tuesday, Yanniello showed jurors surveillance photos, text messages, and video linked to the deadly ambush. He played a harrowing 911 call in which an unidentified woman described the broad-daylight shooting at the center of the case.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey unleashed machine gun fire at rush hour on a Friday,\u201d Yanniello said, referring to three shooters shown on courtroom screens wearing black ski masks. He said the men had been \u201chunting\u201d Quando Rondo since arriving in Los Angeles but ultimately missed their \u201cintended target,\u201d killing Robinson instead.<\/p>\n
\n\tYanniello said Banks funded the alleged conspiracy, with the men\u2019s plane tickets and their stay at a Sheraton hotel charged to his credit cards. He also displayed an Aug. 18, 2022, text message in which Banks wrote, \u201cDon\u2019t book no flights under no names involved wit me.\u201d He claimed it was part of Banks\u2019 effort to cover his tracks. (During the trial, Banks\u2019 lawyers presented evidence that the text instead referred to a friend\u2019s wedding in Mexico that weekend, which Banks decided at the last minute not to attend.)<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tWhen it was his turn, Steel argued that Grant, Banks\u2019 former personal assistant, had been calling the shots on his own. Jurors heard evidence that Grant and King Von had been friends since birth, often referred to each other as first cousins, and that Grant was with King Von the night he was killed.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe is the most manipulative person,\u201d Steel said of Grant, arguing that he had access to Banks\u2019 credit cards and led others to believe he was acting on Banks\u2019 behalf. Findling called Grant a \u201cfraudster\u201d and \u201cthe master of deception\u201d who planned the shooting without Banks\u2019 knowledge.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe has manipulated every single person,\u201d Findling said, noting that Banks fired Grant in early 2023, several months after the killing. \u201cWould you fire someone you assigned to lead a killing? That is preposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSteel also played audio of an interview in which an investigator told Grant, \u201cThis looks like you\u2019re the boss. Are you going down for this one as the boss? Or is there [someone else]?\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSteel asked jurors to \u201cthink about what is missing here.\u201d Without the cooperating witnesses\u2019 testimony, he argued, prosecutors had no case.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is a decision that will last a lifetime,\u201d Findling told the jury. \u201cYou can\u2019t change your mind [after the verdict is read]. This is a lifetime decision. The only verdict is not guilty of all charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring the two weeks of testimony, Hester told jurors that he was recruited for the trip during a phone call that he played on speakerphone in a car while traveling with his wife. He claimed he could hear Banks on a call in the background as the travel plans were made. <\/p>\n
\n\tGrant, for his part, testified that Banks directed him to obtain a stolen vehicle for the attack and later asked, \u201cWell, do you think that we got him?\u201d Grant testified that Banks appeared \u201cexcited\u201d and \u201cjoyful\u201d when he later learned Robinson had been killed.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn his closing, Findling played a jail call on which Grant mocked investigators, claiming they \u201clacked\u201d an understanding of what happened. \u201cCertain things I did on my own,\u201d he was heard saying. \u201cThey didn\u2019t figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSteel, meanwhile, called Hester a \u201cserial killer\u201d convicted of multiple murders. He referred to Jones as a \u201chired assassin\u201d who barely knew Banks and \u201cnever mentioned\u201d the rapper during his first recorded interview with authorities after his arrest.<\/p>\n
\n\tJones testified during the trial that he was told \u201cDurk got a million for us,\u201d which he understood to mean there was a $1 million bounty on Bowman. He also said Grant supplied the weapons, and he claimed he briefly saw Banks on a FaceTime call as the group drove toward Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\n\tDefense lawyer Marissa Goldberg argued in her opening statement that Grant was the closest of all the men to King Von and was consumed with a desire for revenge. The defense called witnesses who challenged the cooperators\u2019 accounts, including Hester\u2019s wife, who said the phone call he described ordering him to Los Angeles never happened. King Von\u2019s former girlfriend, Shekema Springfield, took the stand and called Grant \u201ca liar and a thief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tMonths before trial, prosecutors added a murder-in-aid-of-racketeering charge against Banks and his co-defendants. The judge severed that count, and jurors heard no evidence about it.<\/p>\n
\n\tJurors are expected to begin deliberating after closing arguments conclude Tuesday. If convicted as charged, Banks could face up to life in prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that Chicago rap star Lil Durk \u201chad his shooters on speed dial\u201d when he allegedly set a murder-for-hire plot in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":72310,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}