Is Lil Durk in Jail? Charges, Murder-for-Hire Plot, and Trial Date

Yes, Lil Durk is in jail. The Chicago rapper, whose legal name is Durk Devontay Banks, has been held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles since his arrest on October 24, 2024. He faces federal murder-for-hire and racketeering charges that carry a potential life sentence, and his trial is scheduled to begin on August 20, 2026.¹

Where He’s Being Held

U.S. Marshals arrested Banks in South Florida on October 24, 2024. Prosecutors say he was picked up while attempting to leave the country, having bought tickets to Dubai shortly after five co-defendants were arrested in Chicago the same day.² He made his first court appearance the next day in Miami³ and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on November 14, 2024.⁴ The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald.

Conditions inside have shifted during his detention. From roughly August 2025 to January 2026, Banks was held in solitary confinement after he was found with an Apple Watch, a device prison rules prohibit because it allows unauthorized outside communication.⁵ He has since been returned to general population but remains in custody.

What He’s Charged With

The case has grown significantly since the original indictment. It began as a federal murder-for-hire prosecution and, in June 2026, became a full racketeering case when a federal grand jury returned a third superseding indictment. That indictment added counts of murder in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit stalking, and it folded in allegations of two additional violent incidents: a February 2019 attempted murder in Atlanta and a January 2022 killing of a rival gang member in Chicago.⁶

The indictment characterizes Banks as the leader of a Chicago street gang and describes Only the Family (OTF) as an organization whose members “engaged in violence, including murder and assault, at Banks’ direction.”⁷ Prosecutors have said they will not seek the death penalty.⁸

Banks has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys have called the expanded indictment “lipstick on a pig” and “a scrambling prosecutor’s backup plan,” and they maintain his innocence.⁶ Judge Fitzgerald denied a defense motion to dismiss the indictment, ruling that it met legal requirements and that the defense is not entitled to “a blueprint of the prosecution’s opening statement.”⁹

The Alleged Murder-for-Hire Plot

The core allegation involves the August 19, 2022, shooting death of 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson, known as Lul Pab, at a gas station in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles. Robinson was a cousin and close associate of rapper Quando Rondo (Tyquian Bowman), who prosecutors say was the intended target. Gunmen fired at least 18 rounds at the vehicle. Quando Rondo survived; Robinson did not.¹⁰

Federal prosecutors allege Banks put a bounty on Quando Rondo’s life after the November 6, 2020, killing of Dayvon Bennett, the rapper known as King Von, who was an OTF member and Banks’ close associate. King Von was shot outside a hookah lounge in Atlanta following an altercation with Quando Rondo’s group.¹¹

According to the indictment, after OTF associates learned Quando Rondo was in Los Angeles on August 18, 2022, Banks funded flights from Chicago to San Diego and ground travel to Los Angeles for the co-conspirators. He allegedly instructed an associate, “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.” Prosecutors say co-defendant Kavon Grant flew to Los Angeles on a private jet, secured hotel rooms, purchased ski masks, obtained two luxury sedans, and distributed firearms including a machine gun. The group tracked Quando Rondo and Robinson to several locations before opening fire at the gas station, then met at an In-N-Out restaurant to discuss payment before returning to Chicago.¹²

The racketeering count sweeps in two more incidents. Prosecutors allege that after a January 27, 2022, killing of a rival gang member in Chicago, Banks brought $1 million in cash to a music studio, where an alleged co-conspirator photographed the money alongside lyrics from his song “AHHH HA.” The indictment also alleges Banks and others opened fire on a man in Atlanta on February 5, 2019, during a dispute over a stolen car.⁶

Why He Keeps Being Denied Bail

Banks has been denied bail multiple times, and the reasons help explain why he remains in custody nearly two years after his arrest.

In May 2025, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Donahue denied a bond request after prosecutors presented evidence that Banks had accessed the phone accounts of at least 13 other inmates and made unauthorized three-way calls from the detention center. The judge said the conduct showed “a disrespect for the rules, and that is precisely the court’s concern.”¹³

In June 2025, Judge Fitzgerald denied a more substantial bail proposal that offered $4.5 million in collateral, 24-hour home detention, electronic monitoring, and private security. Fitzgerald found the proposed amount was “only a fraction” of Banks’ net worth and signaled he wanted significantly more of Banks’ wealth at stake, potentially including all of his intellectual property rights in his music catalog. The judge also explicitly found that Banks “did attempt to flee abroad,” citing the Dubai ticket purchases made after his co-defendants were arrested.²

When the Trial Starts

Trial is set to begin on August 20, 2026, in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Banks will be tried alongside his five co-defendants: Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Keith Jones, David Brian Lindsey, and Asa Houston, all arrested in Chicago the same day Banks was arrested in Florida.⁷ Co-defendants asked to be tried separately from Banks, but Judge Fitzgerald denied the severance motion, so the case proceeds as a joint trial.¹

None of the co-defendants have publicly entered plea deals or been identified as cooperating witnesses, though court filings reference at least one unnamed “Prosecution Witness-1.”⁶ Until trial, Banks remains in federal custody in Los Angeles.

A Separate Civil Case

The federal criminal case is the reason Banks is in jail, but it is not his only active litigation. A wrongful death lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court in October 2024 by the family of Chicago rapper Carlton “FBG Duck” Weekly, killed in an August 2020 drive-by, names Banks, King Von’s estate, OTF, and several record labels. The suit alleges OTF functioned as a criminal enterprise and that a $100,000 bounty was placed on FBG Duck’s life.¹⁴ A judge denied motions to dismiss it in early 2026, allowing it to proceed.¹⁵ That case is civil, not criminal, and does not affect his custody status.

1
Complex. Lil Durk Trial Delayed to August
2
Rolling Stone. Lil Durk Denied Bail in Murder-for-Hire Case
3
NBC News. Rapper Lil Durk Arrested in Florida on Murder-for-Hire Charge
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ABC7 Los Angeles. Rapper Lil Durk Pleads Not Guilty to Murder-for-Hire Charges in Los Angeles
5
Revolt. Lil Durk Out of Solitary Confinement After Five Months
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Rolling Stone. Lil Durk Murder-for-Hire Trial Racketeering Count
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U.S. Department of Justice. Chicago Rapper Lil Durk Charged in Superseding Indictment Alleging Murder-for-Hire Plot
8
ABC7 Chicago. Chicago Rapper Lil Durk Will Not Face Death Penalty in Murder-for-Hire Case
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Courthouse News Service. Rapper Lil Durk Can’t Duck Murder-for-Hire Charges
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XXL Magazine. Lil Durk Affiliates Conspired to Kill Quando Rondo Details
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NBC Los Angeles. Rapper King Von Among Three Killed in Atlanta Shooting
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NPR. Lil Durk Charged in Murder Conspiracy in Los Angeles
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Los Angeles Times. Judge Denies Lil Durk Bail
14
WBEZ Chicago. FBG Duck Lil Durk King Von OTF Shooting Homicide Lawsuit
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Complex. FBG Duck Mom Wrongful Death Lawsuit to Continue