Lil Durk is now facing a new charge of stalking resulting in death in his murder-for-hire case.
The Chicago Tribune reports that prosecutors filed the new charge against Durk on May 1 via a superseding indictment. It also includes a supplement to their motion that opposes the reconsideration of Lil Durk’s detention, along with a dismissal of Durk’s team’s accusations that the case is wrongfully centered around his lyrics.
According to prosecutors, the new charge alleges that the rapper ensured the August 2022 killing of Saviay’a ‘Lul Pab’ Robinson — a relative of rival rapper Quando Rondo — was carried out.
Durk’s family recently released a statement about their belief that his case was based on his lyrics being “false evidence” in the case. “The recent developments in Durk’s legal case have brought a harsh truth to light: the government presented false evidence to a grand jury to indict him,” the statement, issued on Apr. 29, reads. “This isn’t justice. That’s a violation of the very system that’s supposed to protect all of us.”
“Durk has always used music to tell stories, to express pain to heal—and yet those same lyrics are now being used against him,” the statement continues. “We refuse to stay silent as Black artists continue to be criminalized for their creativity. Rap is art.”
Lil Durk’s lawyer, Drew Findling, recently spoke about RICO cases (though Durk isn’t facing one) in an interview with DJ Akademiks. During the conversation, Findling was asked his thoughts about rappers getting hit with RICO charges and he compared them to the use of steroids in baseball.
“It made hitting a baseball easier,” Findling recalled. “It just did. … That’s what RICO is. RICO is for the weak-legged prosecutor that’s scared of losing because they know it makes things easier because you don’t have to prove those offenses, you just have to show a pattern of behavior. RICO to a prosecutor is steroids to a baseball player in the ’90s. It just makes their job easier. Then you combine that with this crazy, madness template in Fulton County, Georgia.”
Findling claimed that all the cases follow the same playbook and referred to the music industry-centered cases as “bullshit.”
“The reason why, at least in the music industry, it is such bullshit and so unfair,” he said. “Look at some of those ‘overt acts,’ right? A picture. I mean, it would literally be a picture at a gas station. … So a client goes to their old neighborhood, takes a picture, and now they’re going back there and the Instagram picture is an ‘over act’ to support a RICO allegation.”
Durk is set to have a hearing on May 8 that determines if he’ll be able to be released from jail before his trial.
