Lil Durk Trial Week 1 Recap: Flipped OTF Crew Member Calls Quando Rondo Shooting ‘Sloppy’

The first week of Lil Durk ’s murder-for-hire trial featured text messages, an unreleased music video and key testimony from a former member of the Chicago rapper’s Only the Family (OTF) crew.

You’re reading Billboard ’s 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.

The trial began Monday (Aug.

24) in Los Angeles federal court, where the “All My Life” 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.

During opening statements, prosecutor Daniel Weiner argued that Durk was “consumed with revenge” after Von’s death.

Weiner said Durk arranged for numerous OTF associates to travel from Chicago to L.A. and “track, stalk, hunt and kill” Rondo while he waited for updates in a nearby rental house.

Two alleged participants in the killing, David “Browneyez” Lindsey and Deandre “OTF Dede” Wilson, are also on trial.

Defense lawyer Marissa Goldberg responded in her own opening statement that the rapper had “nothing to do with” the shooting, arguing that there isn’t any evidence showing he paid for a hit on Rondo.

Goldberg said the real mastermind of the plot was Kavon “Vonnie” Grant, one of the shooters who has flipped and become a government witness.

“He thought, ‘Oh man, I’ve got an insurance policy,’” said Goldberg of Vonnie’s decision to point the finger at Durk.

“I’ve got a big fish I can give them.” After openings, the first two days of Durk’s trial focused largely on hard evidence.

Surveillance video was played on Tuesday (Aug.