Prosecutors said Thursday that rapper Lil Durk, accused of killing two years ago in Los Angeles, may be linked to another slaying in Chicago – allegations that helped a judge order the Grammy Award winner to remain in prison for his crime. continues.
During the hearing, US Magistrate Patricia Donahue said the 32-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Durk Devontay Banks, has valuable resources and the ability to flee.
Banks’ lawyers pressed for his release, offering a bond secured by $2.3 million in equity in two homes in Georgia and $1 million in cash. They also said that they will hire security guards around the clock to ensure that they follow the conditions set by the court.
More than 30 people, including family, friends and Sony Music representatives, packed the courtroom, Assistant US Atty. Ian Yanniello said he pointed to the fact that Banks is “a powerful and influential man with significant resources.”
“This case is about how he used that power and used that influence and how he used those resources to encourage and perpetuate violence with deadly results,” Yanniello said.
Banks is accused of ordering the killing of Tyquian Bowman, a Georgia rapper known as Quando Rondo, whose cousin was killed in an ambush near the Beverly Center mall in Los Angeles in 2022. Banks has denied the charges.
According to the lawsuit, Banks wanted to sell his revenge-rape death with “clearly spoken music from a news clip” of Bowman yelling “no, no!” after seeing the dead body of his cousin.
In court Thursday, Drew Findling, Banks’ attorney, disputed that, saying the song prosecutors are talking about was recorded eight months before the incident.
The prosecutor argued that the indictment “lists significant evidence of the involvement of Mr. Banks.”
In a statement filed Thursday, prosecutors also cited a separate case in Chicago, involving the killing of Stephon Mack outside a youth center.
A search warrant was filed under seal in Illinois in April 2023 and made public with updates Wednesday alleging that the banks “provided[ed] money for the people to kill those who are guilty of killing their brother, and especially, donating the money of any student who is a gangster who is killed.”
Banks’ brother, Dontay Banks, Jr., was shot and killed outside a nightclub in Harvey, Ill., in June 2021, according to a search warrant.
“Evidence collected in this case also indicates that the defendant has placed money to solicit other murders, including a family member of the witness,” California prosecutors said in their brief. “The defendant’s approach is clear: he will use his power, his money, his influence, and any pretrial release to endanger anyone he sees as a threat, including witnesses in this case.”
A spokesman for the US attorney’s office in Illinois said two people have been charged with Mack’s murder: Anthony Montgomery-Wilson and Preston Powell. Asked if Banks has been charged or will be charged, the spokesman declined to comment.
Jonathan Brayman, one of Banks’ attorneys, said after the arraignment hearing that his client has not been charged in connection with the Chicago shooting and “we don’t think he will.”
“The stories that come out there have nothing to do with us,” added Findling. “Our client has nothing to do with that; that is not part of our case.”
During his arrest, Banks smiled at his wife and mother, who wept during the trial. Bange kissed his wife when the American marshals led him away.
“We love you,” her family and friends yelled at her in the hallway outside the courtroom.
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