CHICAGO — Lil Durk, an award-winning Chicago rapper accused of masterminding a murder-for-hire plot targeting a rival artist, has pleaded not guilty, according to a report.

THE The Chicago Tribune reported that the 32-year-old rapper, real name Durk Devontay Banks, pleaded not guilty to murder-for-hire charges at his arraignment in Los Angeles on Thursday.

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Banks is currently facing a handful of charges related to his alleged role in a plot to kill Georgia rapper Quando Rondo, real name Tyquian Terrel Bowman, due to his alleged involvement in the events of 2020. murder of Chicago rapper King Von, real name Dayvon Daquan Bennett, in Atlanta.

The charges against Banks include one count of conspiracy, one count of using interstate facilities to commit murder for hire resulting in death, and one count of using, carrying and discharging firearms and a machine gun and possession of such firearms in connection with this prosecution. of a crime of violence resulting in death.

Banks was arrested in Miami on October 24 when he allegedly attempted to board a international flight.

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A superseding federal grand jury indictment announced by the Justice Department last week, named Banks as the main defendant in a case previous indictmentwho charged Kavon London Grant, 28, Deandre Dontrell Wilson, 33, Keith Jones, 33, David Brian Lindsey, 33, and Asa Houston, 36, in connection with the plot.

Prosecutors said Banks allegedly put a bounty on Bowman and paid the five defendants, all of whom have ties to the hip-hop group “Only the Family” (OTF), to commit the murder in exchange for money and musical opportunities.

The indictment alleged that OTF not only produced and sold hip hop music by Chicago artists, but also acted as “a de facto association of individuals who engaged in acts of violence, including murders and assaults, under Banks’ leadership and to maintain their status within the OTF. .”

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Prosecutors said group members learned that Bowman was staying at a hotel in Los Angeles in August 2022 and that banking and theft records allegedly showed that an OTF member and Banks associate coordinated and paid for the trip of the five co-conspirators to California from Chicago. the day before the murder. The hitmen then allegedly used money from banks and finances linked to the OTF to carry out their attack.

On the same day the killers allegedly traveled to California, prosecutors said Banks and Grant also flew to Los Angeles on a private jet. After arriving, Grant allegedly purchased ski masks from the hitmen and purchased a hotel room for the other co-conspirators using a credit card in Banks’ name.

Once in Los Angeles, the hitmen allegedly stalked and stalked Bowman as he, his sister and his cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, 24, drove around in a black Cadillac Escalade.

After Bowman stopped at a gas station, prosecutors said Houston allegedly went to an alley behind the gas station before letting the hitmen come out to shoot.

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Bowman and his sister were not injured in the shooting but Robinson was killed.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Banks was taken to California on Wednesday, where he remains in federal custody. Prosecutors also requested that he remain in custody until his trial, arguing that he poses a flight risk and a danger to the community.

The other five individuals named in the indictment are currently in federal custody in Illinois.

If convicted, all six individuals could face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

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