Lil Durk scored a court victory Tuesday when a federal judge agreed to separate newly filed racketeering charges from his upcoming trial over allegations he ordered a killing that resulted in an August 2022 murder in Los Angeles.
According to Rolling Stone, the ruling came after a 40-minute hearing in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. District Court Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald said that a separate January 2022 killing in Chicago and an alleged February 2019 attempted murder in Atlanta would be off-limits at the rapper's August 20 trial. Prosecutors had introduced those incidents only last month in a third superseding indictment.
The judge severed the related new counts, which alleged violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity and firearms possession in furtherance of murder in aid of racketeering, for a subsequent trial.
"It has been and remains the court's intention that the Los Angeles trial will include all admissible evidence that is not unduly prejudicial," Judge Fitzgerald wrote in his decision. He noted that prosecutors had chosen earlier in the case to withdraw evidence of the Chicago incident from the Los Angeles trial, and said they would have to live with that decision now that the defense had spent so much time preparing accordingly.
In court filings, the rapper, born Durk Banks, and his lawyers said prosecutors blindsided them with what they called sweeping new charges, leaving too little time to prepare. Banks has a constitutional right to a speedy trial, they argued, and he does not want any further delays. He has been held without bail since his arrest in 2024.
During Tuesday's hearing, which Banks' wife, India Royale, attended, Judge Fitzgerald pressed prosecutors on why they had waited so long to file charges related to the January 27, 2022 killing of an alleged rival gang member in Chicago. Banks was not charged in that killing. The government had claimed he brought $1 million in cash to a music studio after the killing as a monetary reward, a claim he has denied.
The judge was pointed in his criticism of the timing. "This third superseding indictment, indisputably, is just a very clever attempt at having the Chicago tail wag the Los Angeles dog," Fitzgerald said, cutting off an assistant U.S. attorney mid-argument.
Drew Findling, one of Durk's defense lawyers, told Rolling Stone the team was pleased with the outcome. "We are very happy with the court's order," Findling said. "For 21 months, we have been unwavering in our commitment to Mr. Banks and his innocence, and we look forward to an Aug. 20, 2026, trial."
The Grammy-winning rapper's Los Angeles trial is now set to begin August 20.
