LOS ANGELES (CN) - Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Durk tried to persuade a federal judge to let him out on bail while he awaits trial on charges that he put a bounty on a rival rapper, resulting in an August 2022 shooting in Los Angeles in which a cousin of his rival was killed.
U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald didn't issue a ruling at a hearing Monday afternoon in downtown LA, where a large number of friends and family of Durk Banks, as he's legally named, packed the courtroom.
While the judge noted that the $4.5 million bail package Banks has offered to put up was a large amount of money, it wasn't going to be enough to convince him that the 32-year-old rapper from Chicago would show up for trial, given his presumptive net worth.
On the other hand, Fitzgerald indicated that he wasn't persuaded either that the prosecution had provided compelling evidence of Banks' involvement in the murder-for-hire scheme that necessitated him to remain jailed pending trial.
"While it's possible and plausible that defendant pulled the strings, at some point, you're going to have to come up with some proof that he did," the judge said. "It might also be possible that there were some hotheaded people who wanted to impress him."
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 had flown to LA from Savannah, Georgia, to address the court at Monday'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 at Monday's hearing that they should have access to the grand jury testimony of the witness, presumably an FBI agent, who provided the incorrect information.
"It was reckless," said Christy O'Connor, one of Banks' attorneys. "The prosecutors didn't do their homework."
The judge also took this request under submission.
The prosecution cautioned him not to release grand jury testimony because it might endanger cooperating witnesses who provided evidence against Banks.
Banks won a Grammy last year for best melodic rap performance for his song "All My Life," which featured J. Cole. He has also been nominated three times and was a featured performer on Drake's "Laugh Now Cry Later."
Source: Courthouse News Service
