\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tThe first week of Lil Durk\u2019s murder-for-hire trial featured text messages, an unreleased music video and key testimony from a former member of the Chicago rapper\u2019s Only the Family (OTF) crew. \u00a0<\/p>\n
You\u2019re reading <\/em>Billboard\u2019s weekly Lil Durk trial recap, a one-sheet breakdown of everything that happened in the murder-for-hire case over the past week. Stay tuned here each Friday for all the testimony and big events you might have missed.<\/em><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\tDale Morris, Nashville Manager Who Guided Careers of Alabama & Kenny Chesney, Dies at 89\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThe trial began Monday (Aug. 24) in Los Angeles federal court, where the \u201cAll My Life\u201d hitmaker (Durk Banks) is charged with ordering OTF members to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend and collaborator King Von. Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but another man known as Lul Pab was killed in the crossfire.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring opening statements, prosecutor Daniel Weiner<\/strong> argued that Durk was \u201cconsumed with revenge\u201d after Von\u2019s death. Weiner said Durk arranged for numerous OTF associates to travel from Chicago to L.A. and \u201ctrack, stalk, hunt and kill\u201d Rondo while he waited for updates in a nearby rental house. Two alleged participants in the killing, David \u201cBrowneyez\u201d Lindsey and Deandre \u201cOTF Dede\u201d Wilson, are also on trial.<\/p>\n \n\tDefense lawyer Marissa Goldberg<\/strong> responded in her own opening statement that the rapper had \u201cnothing to do with\u201d the shooting, arguing that there isn\u2019t any evidence showing he paid for a hit on Rondo. Goldberg said the real mastermind of the plot was Kavon \u201cVonnie\u201d Grant, one of the shooters who has flipped and become a government witness. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHe thought, \u2018Oh man, I\u2019ve got an insurance policy,\u2019\u201d said Goldberg of Vonnie\u2019s decision to point the finger at Durk. \u201cI\u2019ve got a big fish I can give them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter openings, the first two days of Durk\u2019s trial focused largely on hard evidence. Surveillance video was played on Tuesday (Aug. 25) from an In-N-Out Burger restaurant, where the shooters allegedly stopped for a bite after killing Pab. A detective who reviewed the tape testified that the men seemed to be \u201cjoking around\u201d and \u201chaving a good time,\u201d according to Los Angeles Magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tAlso on Tuesday, prosecutors showed numerous text messages sent by Durk after Von\u2019s 2020 death. This included messages where Durk wrote, \u201cI gotta go all out for him,\u201d \u201cI can\u2019t let this slide\u201d and \u201chim dying turning me a different animal.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOn Wednesday (Aug. 26), the jurors heard the first of what is expected to be multiple Durk songs admitted as evidence of Durk\u2019s alleged motive. The prosecution played an unreleased 2021 music video for the song \u201cRedman,\u201d which depicts Durk reading news stories about Von\u2019s death and then shooting a man that prosecutors describe as a Rondo \u201clook-alike.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDurk\u2019s lawyers maintain that his music should not be taken literally, but instead ought to be viewed as a performance in which he\u2019s \u201cchallenging his emotions through his artwork.\u201d Durk attorney Brian Steel <\/strong>drilled down on this argument while cross-examining an FBI agent about the \u201cRedman\u201d video on Wednesday, per Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou know that Durk is a musical artist, a poet, true?\u201d Steel asked the agent.<\/p>\n \n\tThe real fireworks began later on Wednesday when the first of multiple cooperating witnesses took the stand: Kacey \u201cOTF Jam\u201d Hester, a Chicago gang member and former friend of Durk\u2019s who has admitted to being one of the shooters who targeted Rondo.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to Courthouse News Service, <\/em>Jam said during direct testimony on Wednesday and Thursday (Aug. 27) that he regretted participating in the murder of an \u201cinnocent\u201d man. He told the jury, \u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling good about it at all. I felt it was sloppy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJam testified Thursday that Durk offered a hefty cash reward for the shooting. While this promised sum was never paid, he allegedly received $10,000 to record a track with Durk. After being arrested in 2023 on separate gun charges, he wrote in a note to police, \u201cI know about murders.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI had to get it off my chest,\u201d said Jam of his decision to become a government informant. \u201cIt was weighing on me.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSteel aggressively cross-examined Jam on Thursday and Friday (Aug. 28), pointing out that his story had \u201cdramatically\u201d changed over time. Steel suggested that Jam, who has been in and out of prison for much of his life, is lying about Durk\u2019s involvement because he wants a reduced sentence.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cGoing home, that\u2019s your mission?\u201d Steel asked the witness, per Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u00a0\u201cMe, trying to go home? Yes,\u201d Jam replied.<\/p>\n \n\tThe trial is set to resume Monday and run for several more weeks. It has already drawn some notable spectators, including Ye (formerly Kanye West) and mgk. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/pro\/lil-durk-murder-trial-week-1-recap\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1986467127-e1780625287323.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard The first week of Lil Durk\u2019s murder-for-hire trial featured text messages, an unreleased music video and key testimony from a former member of the Chicago rapper\u2019s Only the Family (OTF) crew. \u00a0 You\u2019re reading Billboard\u2019s weekly Lil Durk trial recap, a one-sheet breakdown of everything that happened in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2117364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2117364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2117364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2117364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2117364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![\"Dale](\"https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/dale-morris-country-music-hall-2016-billboard-1800.jpg?w=237&h=147&crop=1\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n