Rapper Lil Durk won't get out on bail in murder-for-hire case

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Durk will remain jailed as he awaits trial on charges of orchestrating a failed attempt to kill a rival rapper in 2022, resulting in the murder of the rival’s cousin who was in the car with him.

U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald on Monday denied the request by Durk Banks, as he’s legally named, to post as much as $4.5 million in bail and await his trial in home detention watched over by private security.

The judge agreed with the prosecution that no combination of conditions would reasonably assure that the Chicago rapper would show up for future court dates or reasonably assure the safety of any other person and the community.

“The sentence is mandatory life in prison without parole, which would make any innocent defendant consider flight as the rational alternative,” Fitzgerald said, referring to the sentence Banks would face if he’s convicted at trial on the charges brought against him by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

The judge further agreed with the government that Banks was likely trying to flee the country when he was arrested last year near Miami International Airport after law enforcement learned that he had been booked on multiple international flights.

Banks’ lawyers argued he was merely traveling to Dubai as he had done many times before for both professional and spiritual reasons. He has performed at concerts and recorded there, they said in court last week, and as a devout Muslim, traveling to the Middle East is also deeply important to Banks’ faith.

“The court accepts that defendant has business and spiritual reasons to travel to the Middle East,” Fitzgerald said. “There is no evidence that he intended to do so that day for any reason apart from the murder and resulting arrests of the codefendants.”

Neither was the judge persuaded that the appearance bond Banks agreed to post would be sufficient given that he’s a very wealthy man and the amount offered was only a fraction of his net worth.

“Moreover, defendant would still have his intellectual property with which to earn a handsome living abroad,” Fitzgerald said. “Any set of conditions would need to impoverish defendant and lead to the forfeiture of all interest in his intellectual property.”

In addition, the judge cited the danger to any government witnesses who might testify against Banks at trial if he was allowed to stay at home, where it would be easier for him to use his money, power and influence to “plot” against those who he perceives as a threat.

“While we are disappointed in the  court’s ruling, we remain confident that the truth will come to light when this case is tried in front of a jury,” Banks’ attorneys said in an email. “Durk Banks is innocent of these allegations and will be fully exonerated.”

Banks was arrested last October in Florida on charges that he orchestrated the attempted 2022 revenge killing of rapper Quando Rondo at an LA gas station, a shooting that resulted in the death of Quando Rondo’s cousin.

He is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in the slaying of Saviay’a Robinson, 24, who was gunned down on Aug. 19, 2022. Five members of Bank’s Chicago-based rap collective, “Only the Family" or OTF, have also been charged.

Robinson’s mother flew to LA from Savannah, Georgia, to address the court at last week’s hearing.

“I’m scared to be here,” she said in a tearful address. “I just want you to know that Saviay’a had a family, too.”

Banks in April asked for the superseding indictment against him to be dismissed because, he claimed, the government had falsely told the grand jury that he had celebrated the revenge killing in a rap track recorded after the shooting of Quando Rondo’s cousin. The lyrics in question, Banks argued, were recorded seven months before the shooting.

The government filed a second superseding indictment shortly afterward that left out the disputed rap lyrics and mooted Banks’ bid to get the charges dismissed. Nevertheless, his attorneys argued that they should have access to the grand jury testimony of the witness, presumably an FBI agent, who provided the incorrect information.

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