LOS ANGELES — Rapper Lil Durk has been found not guilty in all charges in a federal country on Friday.

More than four years after a fatal shooting near the Beverly Center set off a sprawling federal investigation, the murder-for-hire case against Chicago rapper Lil Durk has reached its decisive stage, with jurors weighing whether prosecutors proved that the Grammy-winning artist helped orchestrate a revenge plot targeting rival rapper Quando Rondo.

Even after being acquitted on all charges in his murder-for-hire trial, Lil Durk is not necessarily walking out of jail immediately.

The Chicago rapper still faces a separate federal racketeering case involving allegations of violence and drug trafficking. Those charges were initially set to be tried alongside the murder-for-hire case, but a judge ordered them separated, leaving Durk with another trial ahead.

Federal prosecutors are expected to seek his continued detention while that case remains pending. However, the acquittal could strengthen Durk’s attorneys’ argument for release on bond, home confinement or electronic monitoring.

Per New York Times, Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, pleaded not guilty. He went to trial alongside Deondre Dontrell Wilson and David Brian Lindsey on federal charges stemming from the August 2022 shooting that killed Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson, Rondo’s cousin. Prosecutors contend Rondo, whose legal name is Tyquian Bowman, was the intended target.

The case presented to jurors is the culmination of a chain of events stretching back years — through the killing of Durk’s close friend King Von, the Los Angeles ambush, cooperating witnesses, Durk’s 2024 arrest and weeks of testimony in federal court.

November 2020: King Von is killed

The government’s theory begins nearly two years before the Los Angeles shooting.

Chicago rapper King Von, born Dayvon Bennett and a close friend and collaborator of Durk, was killed during a confrontation outside an Atlanta nightclub in November 2020.

Federal prosecutors allege that Durk subsequently became focused on retaliating against Quando Rondo, who was associated with the opposing side of the confrontation. At trial, prosecutors described Durk as being driven by revenge and alleged that money and opportunities were offered to associates willing to kill Rondo.

Durk’s attorneys rejected that narrative, arguing that anger or grief over Von’s death did not prove their client entered into a criminal agreement.

August 2022: The Los Angeles ambush

The case centers on what happened in Los Angeles on Aug. 19, 2022.

According to prosecutors, members of the alleged conspiracy tracked Rondo as he traveled through the Los Angeles area before gunmen opened fire near a gas station by the Beverly Center.

Rondo survived.

Robinson, 24, was killed.

The government later alleged that the shooting was not a spontaneous act of violence but the execution of a murder-for-hire plan targeting Rondo. Prosecutors said travel, vehicles, communications and other evidence connected members of Durk’s circle to the operation.

The investigation turns toward OTF

Federal investigators spent the following years building a case involving members and associates of Only The Family, the collective and record label founded by Durk.

Several people connected to the case eventually became cooperating witnesses.

That cooperation became critical once the case reached trial. Prosecutors relied heavily on insiders who said they participated in, knew about or helped facilitate efforts against Rondo.

Among them were Kacey Hester, known as OTF Jam, and Kavon Grant, known as OTF Vonnie. Their testimony would later become one of the most fiercely contested parts of the government’s case.

October 2024: Durk is arrested

Federal authorities arrested Durk in South Florida in October 2024.

Prosecutors accused him of helping arrange and finance the attempt on Rondo’s life. Durk denied the allegations and remained in federal custody as the case moved toward trial.

The prosecution ultimately expanded through superseding indictments and additional allegations. But a major pretrial ruling narrowed what the August 2026 jury would hear.

July 2026: Judge keeps the trial on schedule

Weeks before trial, prosecutors sought to move forward with additional allegations that threatened to expand the case and delay proceedings.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald instead severed newly added counts from the case scheduled for August, allowing the original murder-for-hire-related prosecution to move forward.

The ruling meant Durk could still face separate federal proceedings even after the jury decided the charges before it in Los Angeles.

Aug. 20-21: Jury selection begins

Jury selection started Aug. 20 in downtown Los Angeles.

The court questioned prospective jurors about their ability to evaluate the evidence without allowing opinions about rap music, violent lyrics or celebrity to determine the case.

By Aug. 21, a panel of 12 jurors and four alternates had been selected.

Durk, Wilson and Lindsey would face the jury together.

Aug. 24: Prosecutors and defense offer competing stories

Opening statements began Aug. 24.

Prosecutors told jurors the shooting was the endpoint of a revenge campaign. They alleged Durk used his money and influence to encourage members of his circle to pursue Rondo.

The defense offered a fundamentally different account.

Durk’s attorneys said their client had nothing to do with the murder plot and pointed instead toward former associate Kavon Grant. They argued prosecutors were attempting to turn the actions of others into Durk’s crimes and relying on cooperating witnesses who had powerful incentives to help the government.

Cooperators take the stand

The prosecution’s case increasingly rested on testimony from people who said they had firsthand knowledge of the alleged plot.

Hester testified that he was among the gunmen involved in the Los Angeles attack and implicated Durk in the events leading to it.

Grant also testified about alleged efforts targeting Rondo.

Another participant, Keith Jones, testified that Durk had offered a large financial reward for Rondo’s killing, according to reporting on the proceedings.

But the witnesses also gave the defense openings.

Durk’s lawyers attacked their credibility, highlighted prior statements and emphasized the benefits cooperating witnesses could hope to receive from prosecutors. Hester, for example, was confronted with an earlier account to investigators that conflicted with portions of his trial testimony.

The witnesses also acknowledged that Durk was not physically present at the Los Angeles shooting.

That distinction became central to the case: prosecutors did not need to prove Durk pulled a trigger. They needed to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly and intentionally participated in the charged conspiracies and crimes.

Digital evidence, messages and music enter the case

Prosecutors also introduced electronic evidence, including communications and other digital records, as they attempted to connect Durk to the alleged operation.

Before trial, Judge Fitzgerald ruled on an array of disputed evidence, including text messages, iCloud material, videos and music-related evidence. The use of Durk’s artistic output became a recurring battleground, with prosecutors arguing that certain material was relevant to intent or knowledge and the defense warning against treating rap music as literal confession.

A separate dispute emerged over portions of an interview Durk gave to media personality DJ Akademiks. Defense attorneys challenged the way prosecutors characterized or presented portions of that interview as the case approached deliberations.

September: The defense attacks the government’s witnesses

As testimony progressed into September, defense attorneys sought to turn the government’s cooperators into a weakness rather than a strength.

Their argument was straightforward: the people directly involved in criminal activity had reasons to shift responsibility toward the most famous defendant in the courtroom.

The government countered that the witnesses’ accounts were supported by communications, travel evidence and other circumstances surrounding the attack.

By Sept. 3, the trial had reached its 11th day, according to the federal court calendar.

The central question was increasingly clear.

Was Durk the man behind the operation, as prosecutors alleged?

Or had federal investigators assembled the actions and testimony of others into a case that failed to prove Durk himself intentionally joined the plot?

Sept. 9: The case goes to the jury

Following closing arguments, jurors began deliberating Sept. 9.

The government urged them to view the witnesses, communications, travel and events surrounding the shooting as pieces of one coordinated plan.

The defense argued there was reasonable doubt throughout the case and that testimony from cooperating witnesses could not reliably establish that Durk ordered or joined the plot.

The jury did not immediately return a verdict.

Instead, jurors requested access to admitted evidence in digital form, signaling that they intended to review the record closely.

Sept. 10: Jurors focus on conspiracy and intent

On the second day of deliberations, the jury sent questions to Judge Fitzgerald.

Those questions went directly to some of the most consequential legal issues in the case.

Jurors sought clarification concerning conspiracy and the stalking-related allegations, including questions about the meaning of intent and the legal requirements surrounding the charged conduct.

Judge Fitzgerald declined to substantially rewrite the law for them, directing jurors back to the instructions they had already received.

The questions offered no reliable indication of whether jurors were leaning toward conviction or acquittal.

But they showed that the panel was examining precisely the issue the defense had emphasized: whether the government proved not simply that a plot existed, but that Durk possessed the required criminal intent and knowingly became part of it.

The jury finished Thursday without announcing a verdict.

Sept. 11: Verdict watch enters Day 3

Jurors returned Friday morning for a third day of deliberations.

By then, the case had moved beyond the spectacle surrounding the courthouse and into the technical elements of federal conspiracy law.

The panel had heard weeks of testimony, examined communications and digital records, listened to cooperating witnesses admit their own involvement and heard Durk’s lawyers challenge whether any of it established their client’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The jury’s earlier questions suggested particular attention to intent, conspiracy and stalking — issues that could determine whether prosecutors successfully connected Durk to the actions of the men who actually carried out the attack.

As of the latest independently verifiable reporting Friday, no verdict had yet been publicly confirmed. Durk, Wilson and Lindsey therefore remained presumed innocent while deliberations continued.

For Durk, however, the verdict in this trial will not necessarily mark the end of his federal legal fight.

Charges severed from the current case remain outside the jury’s consideration, meaning even an acquittal on the counts being deliberated in Los Angeles would not automatically resolve every federal allegation pending against him.