US rapper Lil Durk found not guilty of murder-for-hire scheme

Chicago rapper Lil Durk has been acquitted of all charges in a murder-for-hire scheme, in which a man was fatally gunned down in 2022.Prosecutors had accused Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, of putting a bounty on Atlanta rapper Tayquian Bowman’s life in retaliation for the 2020 shooting death of Banks’s friend, fellow Chicago rap star King Von.The state alleged that associates of Only the Family, Banks’s alleged criminal enterprise and record label, tracked Bowman to a gas station in West Hollywood in 2022, where they opened fire on his car. Bowman’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, was fatally shot in the ambush.Kacey Hester, who said he had been a shooter in the attack, testified, according to Courthouse News, that Banks probed for details on the ambush: “Did somebody get hit? How many times did you shoot? What did you do?”Banks’s defense attorneys cast doubt over the reliability of Hester’s testimony, saying he was seeking a more lenient sentence.The rapper’s defense team also sought to portray Kavon Grant, Banks’s former assistant, whose cousin died after an altercation with Bowman’s entourage, as the mastermind of the 2022 shooting.Prosecutors rebuffed the lawyers’ notion. “No one is saying he was the one on the ground with a gun in his hand in Los Angeles, but you know this story doesn’t happen without him, and it doesn’t make sense without his leadership,” assistant US attorney Ian Yanniello reportedly said.The Friday federal jury verdict brought an end to a highly publicized case that drew loyal fans and celebrity supporters to the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.Banks’s legal woes are not over yet. He is due to appear in court for a second trial on a racketeering charge.“While we are disappointed with the jury’s decision regarding Durk Banks, AKA Lil Durk, we look forward to presenting our evidence at his second trial, scheduled for 5 October, when he will face racketeering murder and firearms charges,” said first assistant US attorney Bill Essayli.