Rapper Lil Durk – Credit: Prince Williams/FilmMagic
Federal prosecutors are linking Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk to a second homicide forward of his Thursday detention listening to in Los Angeles tied to separate fees he orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot.
A newly unsealed warrant software obtained by the Chicago Tribune Thursday reportedly stated the artist, born Durk Banks, was behind the Jan. 27, 2022 capturing demise of Stephon Mack on Chicago’s Far South Side. According to the FBI, Mack was the chief of the Smashville faction of the Gangster Disciples, the Tribune reported.
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News of Banks’ alleged connection to Mack’s killing broke simply two hours earlier than Banks was attributable to seem in a courtroom in downtown Los Angeles to struggle for his launch. He’s been in custody since his October arrest and is awaiting trial on fees he orchestrated a scheme that led to the capturing demise of Georgia rapper Quando Rondo’s cousin at a Los Angeles fuel station two years in the past.
Banks, 32, pleaded not responsible within the Los Angeles case final month. In that case, prosecutors within the Central District of California say Banks used his hip-hop collective Only the Family, or OTF, to interact in violence. They declare he sought revenge on Quando Rondo as a result of he believed the man rapper, born Tyquian Bowman, was by some means concerned within the capturing demise of up-and-coming artist King Von outdoors an Atlanta membership on Nov. 6, 2020. (Banks and King Von, born Dayvon Bennett, had been childhood associates, with Banks signing Bennett to his label in 2018.)
“After [Bennett’s] homicide, defendant Banks made clear, in coded language, that he would pay a bounty or financial reward, and/or make fee to anybody who took half in killing [Bowman] for his function in [Bennett’s] homicide,” the superseding indictment now pending towards Banks states.
Attempts to achieve Banks’ authorized workforce weren’t instantly profitable Thursday. In a submitting forward of his detention listening to, the attorneys referred to as Banks “a faithful husband, father, and son” and famend artist who deserved launch on a bond secured by $1 million money and his $2.3 million fairness in two properties. They stated he would undergo digital monitoring and 24-hour safety surveillance.
Prosecutors stated they opposed Banks’ launch. In prior filings, they’ve alleged Banks realized Bowman was staying in a Los Angeles resort in August 2022 and brought on his co-defendants to journey from Chicago to Los Angeles to seek out him. Prosecutors allege Banks’ co-defendants “used two autos and labored in tandem to trace, stalk, and try to homicide [Bowman] for hours,” culminating within the fuel station capturing. The gunmen fired no less than 18 rounds at Bowman’s automobile, placing and killing Bowman’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, who was touring with him, authorities allege.
Prosecutors declare they’ve banking and flight information that hyperlink a Banks affiliate to the journey plans. They say that across the time the one-way flights had been bought, Banks allegedly informed the affiliate, “Don’t ebook no flights below no names concerned wit [sic] me.”
The similar day a number of of the boys traveled to California, Banks flew in on a non-public jet with one other alleged co-conspirator, Kavon London Grant, 28, the indictment claims. Grant allegedly bought ski masks for the shooters and used a bank card in Banks’ identify to pay for the opposite males’s resort room, prosecutors allege.
When Banks’ co-defendants had been arrested in Chicago the morning of Oct. 24, Banks purportedly deliberate to go away nation, an FBI agent alleged in an affidavit obtained by Rolling Stone. The agent stated that “shortly after” officers made the Chicago arrests and began executing search warrants, the FBI was notified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that Banks had been booked on separate one-way flights to Dubai and Switzerland, leaving out of the Miami space. He didn’t board both flight and was arrested within the neighborhood of a Miami airport an hour earlier than his non-public jet sure for Italy was set to depart, the agent wrote.
If convicted as charged within the Los Angeles case, Banks is dealing with as much as life in federal jail.
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