NEWS
Lil Durk and his legal team are looking to get his murder-for-hire case dismissed, claiming that prosecutors misled the jury which indicted him about the facts.
The Chicago rapper is accused of being behind the 2022 attempted murder of Quando Rondo by placing a bounty on his rap rival’s head in revenge for the death of his friend and collaborator King Von.
According to Durk’s attorneys, prosecutors’ claim that the rapper details the alleged attack on Babyface Ray‘s song “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy” is wrong and that it was written months before the shooting took place.
The government’s misrepresentation in the Superseding Indictment, whether knowing or reckless, undermines the integrity of the grand jury’s true bill against Mr. Banks,” they argue in a new filing. “The Court should dismiss the Superseding Indictment against him as a result.”
In a separate filing asking for Durk to be released from jail ahead of trial, his lawyers claim that prosecutors have “attempted to hold Mr. Banks [Lil Durk] responsible for video clips that YouTubers and Instagram users have edited, produced, and posted to social media, but with whom Mr. Banks has no affiliation.”
The motion specifically mentions a fan-made video which “showing defendant’s [Lil Durk’s] rival [Quando Rondo] screaming, ‘No, no’ that was placed over these lyrics [from ‘Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy’],” which prosecutors then “speculated that perhaps [the song] could be a reference to some other uncharged murder.”
His legal team goes on to say: “It is unfair, misleading, and just flat-out wrong for the government to suggest that Mr. Banks is responsible for these video/audio edits or that they evidence his purported commercialization of a murder that he supposedly ordered.”
A judge has yet to rule on either motion.
Lil Durk has been behind bars since his arrest in October and has already been denied bail once, despite his attorneys proposing a bond package totaling around $3 million in cash and real estate.
Prosecutors had argued that the Grammy-winner had a pattern of “criminal behavior and interference,” which the judge sided with. It was also alleged that Durk had not exactly been following the rules at Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Los Angeles.
“Despite clear instructions to not engage in three-way calls, defendant repeatedly abused the phone system at MDC to engage in such conduct,” a legal brief read in December.
Durk’s trial is currently scheduled to begin on October 14, 2025, after being pushed back nearly a year.
The “complex” nature of the case was cited among the reasons for the delay, including “approximately 230GB of digital evidence” that prosecutors have to go through, “such as audio/video recordings and surveillance footage, and approximately 20,000 pages of reports concerning murder and other violent acts, photographs, witness statements, and medical documents.”
Durk has maintained his innocence and claimed that prosecutors have “no real evidence” linking him to the attempted murder of Quando Rondo, which resulted in the death of his cousin Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson.
Dave Mustaine has chosen to bring Megadeth to an end after completing one final tour due to ongoing health challenges.
The band plans to step away next year once they wrap up their farewell run and release their final album. Frontman Dave, 64, has now shared that he reached this decision because arthritis and issues with his back have left him “unable to give a hundred per cent every night”.
Speaking on SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Dave said, “It had been building up for a long time, just physical things happening with my hands … My hands were starting to fail me.
“And there were other difficulties tied to everything going on with my neck and my trunk. That whole area has arthritis and some bulging discs.
“I have a fractured lumbar bone. And of course, my back has been fused near my shoulders and neck. There is just a lot going on …
“I always said that when the time came where I could no longer give a hundred per cent each night, that would be the moment I would start thinking about slowing down.”
He continued by sharing that the choice became clear after the band completed recording their final self-titled project.
Dave explained, “It was not that I couldn’t give a hundred per cent, because we finished the album and I feel we did well with it, but while we were working I had a moment where I told my manager … ‘I am not sure how much longer I can continue. My hands are really hurting.’
“I did not intend to set things in motion. I was just talking, but it led to conversations with the band, then taking time to reflect, speaking with my family, and praying about it.
“And the answer was obvious to me that by the time the album was finished, I would know how it would perform. If it does really well, I can still deliver one final strong tour.
“And the idea of a farewell feels connected to that. We have certain shows we want to play so we can say goodbye to the people who have supported us.”
Dave added, “We are an American band, but we perform all over the world. We are not weekend performers like some country acts in the States. We have a lot of ground to cover if we want to say goodbye the right way.”
The band’s seventeenth studio album, Megadeth, will arrive in January, and their This Was Our Life tour begins in Canada in February.
