Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Oct. 14 to reject requests from two co-defendants in the Lil Durk trial to overturn their stalking convictions, according to All Hip Hop’s exclusive report on the 31-page filing. The jury convicted Deandre “DeDe” Wilson and David “Browneyez” Lindsey on three stalking counts each on Sept. 11. Both men are presumed innocent of anything a court has not decided, and both are asking for acquittal or a new trial.
What the Jury Decided
The jury acquitted Lil Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, on all five counts on Sept. 11, All Hip Hop reported. It also acquitted Wilson and Lindsey of the murder-for-hire charges. The jury deliberated three days, according to an Associated Press report carried by a local television station.
The case grew from an Aug. 19, 2022, shooting near the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. Gunmen fired on an SUV carrying the rapper Quando Rondo, whose legal name is Tyquian Bowman. Rondo survived. His cousin, Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson, 24, was killed. Prosecutors alleged that Durk paid for Rondo to be killed after a member of Rondo’s entourage fatally shot the rapper King Von in Atlanta in 2020, the AP reported. The jury rejected that charge against all three defendants.
The AP reported that Durk remains in custody, awaiting trial on a racketeering count that the court severed from this case. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said prosecutors look forward to presenting their evidence at that trial, according to the AP.
How the Case Began
The Justice Department announced the case in October 2024. Prosecutors arrested Durk Banks, then 32, near Miami International Airport on Oct. 24, 2024, after learning he had been booked on three international flights, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California in an arrest announcement. A grand jury returned a superseding indictment on Nov. 7, 2024. It named six defendants: Banks, Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson, Keith Jones, David Brian Lindsey and Asa Houston.
The indictment alleged that Banks founded the group Only the Family in 2010 and put a bounty on a rival after the Nov. 6, 2020, killing of the rapper Dayvon Bennett, known as King Von. It alleged that associates tracked the rival for hours on Aug. 19, 2022, and fired at least 18 rounds into his vehicle at a gas station near the Beverly Center, killing a family member who was traveling with him.
It alleged that five shooters flew from Chicago to California the day before, with flights an associate paid for, and that Banks flew to California on a private jet the same day. Those are allegations from the indictment, and the department’s announcement says every defendant is presumed innocent.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in the announcement that Banks was charged with “orchestrating a cold-blooded murder.” The counts listed in the November 2024 announcement were conspiracy, use of interstate facilities to commit murder for hire resulting in death and firearms offenses. The announcement does not list stalking.
The stalking counts on which the jury convicted Wilson and Lindsey are described in the later reports on the trial. The jury reached its verdicts 673 days after the superseding indictment and 687 days after Banks’s arrest, counts from the dates in the department’s announcements and the Sept. 11 verdict.
The Defense Motions
Wilson and Lindsey each filed post-trial motions asking U.S. District Judge Michael Fitzgerald to set aside the verdicts. A motion for a judgment of acquittal asks the judge to rule that the evidence could not support a conviction. A motion for a new trial asks for a second jury. The central defense argument, All Hip Hop reported, is that a secret plot does not meet the federal stalking standard when the target never knew anyone was following him. Wilson’s lawyers argued that the evidence showed a surprise attack and failed to prove stalking.
Lindsey’s motion added three more arguments: that being tried alongside other defendants prejudiced him, that the court admitted certain evidence it should have excluded and that the jury instructions were flawed. After the verdict, Wilson’s attorney Craig Harbaugh thanked the jury for seeing there was no murder for hire and said a motion for acquittal on the remaining counts was before the court, according to the AP. Lindsey’s attorney Tillet Mills said the jury saw this was never a murder for hire and told the AP that “the fight is not over.”
The Government’s Response
The 31-page response, dated Oct. 14, rests on the wording of the statute. Prosecutors wrote that the law defines a course of conduct as two or more acts, and that none of those acts has to be known to the victim, All Hip Hop reported. They also pointed to language covering conduct that “causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause” substantial emotional distress.
Prosecutors described a multi-day plan and cited travel records, phone data, video and witness accounts showing the defendants tracked Rondo across Los Angeles before the shooting. They argued that firing into an occupied SUV supports the stalking count that involves Robinson. Their filing says the evidence proved the conspirators knew Rondo, Robinson and others were inside the vehicle.
The government said a jury could find, and did find, that the conspirators intended to stalk Robinson in addition to Rondo, All Hip Hop reported. Prosecutors also opposed Lindsey’s arguments about being tried with others, about the evidence and about the jury instructions.
Why the Verdicts Split
The verdicts show how the jury separated two theories. Murder for hire requires proof that someone paid for a killing. Stalking, as prosecutors framed it, requires proof of a course of conduct aimed at a person, with a death resulting. The jury rejected the first theory for all three defendants and accepted the second for two of them. The reports on the verdict do not explain the jury’s reasoning. The filing is entry 749 on the case docket, according to All Hip Hop. That puts the government’s response well into a case that began with a shooting 1,517 days earlier, a count of the days from Aug. 19, 2022, to Oct. 14, 2026. The response came 33 days after the verdict.
What Comes Next
All Hip Hop’s report does not say when Fitzgerald will rule, and it does not give a sentencing date for Wilson or Lindsey. A ruling that denies the motions would leave the three stalking convictions in place for each man. A ruling that grants a new trial would send the case back to a jury. The report also does not give a trial date for Durk’s separate racketeering count. The AP report does not give a date either. Durk’s attorneys did not respond to requests for comment after the verdict, the AP reported.
