Lil Durk won’t be free anytime soon, as the rapper’s latest bond request ahead of his murder-for-hire trial has been denied.
As reported by Meghann Cuniff, U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Donahue denied the rapper’s bail request during a hearing in Los Angeles court on Thursday (May 8). She pointed to a report that accused Durk of violating phone rules while behind bars, using the phone accounts of “at least” 13 other inmates and doing three-way calls. “It shows a disrespect for the rules, and that is precisely the court’s concern,” Donahue said.
Durk was arrested alongside several affiliates of his Only the Family record label in October last year and has remained behind bars since. He has been accused of orchestrating a murder-for-hire plot that took the life of Quando Rondo‘s cousin, Saviay’a “Lul Pabb” Robinson, in August 2022. The fatal shooting of Rondo’s cousin is believed to have been in retaliation for the murder of King Von in 2020. Lil Durk made a bail request in December, which was also rejected.
The rapper’s defense attorney, Drew Findling, highlighted during the hearing that prosecutors removed references to his lyrics in a superseding indictment filed last week, which he said accused his client of rapping about a specific murder in a track. He said that he thinks “the government no longer contends that was accurate or at least viable testimony,” to which the leading prosecutor said they “stand by the allegation that defendant did, in fact, commercialize his violence.”
The use of Lil Durk’s lyrics as evidence has been a controversial issue, as it has been in other cases involving rappers. His family accused authorities of using his lyrics “against him.”
Last week, Lil Durk was hit with a stalking charge in the ongoing case, which is set to go to trial this October.
