Lil Durk won a significant pretrial ruling Tuesday when a federal judge agreed to separate newly filed racketeering charges from his upcoming Los Angeles trial, according to Rolling Stone.
The ruling means allegations tied to a January 2022 killing in Chicago and a February 2019 attempted murder in Atlanta will not be part of the Aug. 20 trial in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said those charges, added last month in a third superseding indictment, would be handled in a later proceeding.
Judge Fitzgerald said the Los Angeles trial should include admissible evidence that is not unfairly prejudicial. He also noted that prosecutors had previously withdrawn the Chicago incident from the case and would have to stand by that choice now that the defense had prepared around it.
Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, has been jailed without bail since his 2024 arrest. His attorneys argued that the new allegations were dropped on the defense too late and said he wanted to keep the case on schedule because of his right to a speedy trial.
Prosecutors allege Banks used coded language to hire hitmen in connection with the Aug. 19, 2022 killing of Saviay’a Robinson in Los Angeles. They say the intended target was Robinson’s cousin, rapper Quando Rondo, and that the violence was linked to the death of Banks’ friend and protégé Dayvon “King Von” Bennett.
