Lil Durk Murder-for-Hire Trial

A jury of 12 plus four alternates was seated on Friday, August 21, after two days of questioning about 80 prospective jurors in downtown Los Angeles — much of it about whether they could judge a rapper fairly. Opening statements are expected Monday, August 24, before Judge Michael Fitzgerald, and the court has told jurors to expect three weeks or more. Prosecutors have said they expect to call about 35 witnesses, roughly 20 of them substantive, and their witness list is sealed because, they say, witnesses and relatives were threatened during the case. Some of those witnesses have signed plea deals — agreements to testify in exchange for lighter treatment — which the defense will use to attack their credibility. — KESQ / City News Service — Opening statements expected Monday · MyNewsLA — Opening Statements Expected Monday · AllHipHop — Jury Selection Resumes As 16-Person Panel Takes Shape · 24Hip-Hop — Prosecutors Move to Keep Witness List Under Seal · iHeart / Power 105.1 — Durk May Face Witnesses Who've Signed Plea Deals

Durk Devontay Banks, 33 — the Chicago rapper known as Lil Durk, a Grammy winner and the founder of Only the Family (OTF), which is both his record label and, prosecutors say, a crew that 'regularly engaged in violence, including murder and assault, at Banks' direction.' He has been in federal custody without bail since his arrest on October 24, 2024, near a Miami airport, where agents say he was about to board a private jet to Italy. He is on trial alongside two co-defendants, Deandre Wilson ('OTF DeDe') and David Lindsey ('Browneyez'). · Four federal counts go to this jury, after the judge split the rest of the indictment off into a separate trial. In plain terms: (1) agreeing with others to stalk someone across state lines; (2) interstate stalking that ended in a death — the federal stalking law, 18 U.S.C. § 2261A; (3) agreeing to use phones, planes and money — 'facilities of interstate commerce' — to arrange a killing for pay, the federal murder-for-hire law, 18 U.S.C. § 1958; and (4) firing a gun, including a machine gun, during a violent crime in which someone died, under 18 U.S.C. § 924. City News Service reports that a conviction on all counts carries a mandatory life sentence — life in federal prison, no parole, no discretion for the judge. The Justice Department confirmed in June 2025 that it will not seek the death penalty, which § 1958 would otherwise allow when a death results.
Not guilty to every count. The defense — led at trial by Brian Steel, with Drew Findling — argues the government has no reliable evidence that Banks ordered or paid for anything, and that his songs, music videos and internet comments are art, persona and grief, not confessions. As his lawyers put it when prosecutors deleted an allegation that his lyrics referenced the killing: 'This claim is, and has always been, baseless.'
U.S. District Court, Central District of California · Judge Michael Fitzgerald · Prosecution: Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello (lead), Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Weiner, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples, U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California · Defense: Brian Steel (lead trial counsel; defended Young Thug in the Atlanta YSL case), Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg, Christy O'Connor, Jonathan M. Brayman