Lil Durk‘s codefendants insist on getting their own trials separate from the rapper.
On June 10, the attorneys from DeAndre Wilson and David Lindsey, two of the five men charged with carrying out the murder of Quando Rondo‘s cousin in 2022 at Durk’s behest, filed a new motion requesting to be severed from Durk’s trial.
The lawyers are basing their request on new racketeering charges recently filed in the case, involving two shootings in Georgia in 2019 and 2021, and a 2022 Chicago murder, which the attorneys say are unrelated to their clients and would prejudice a jury.
“A jury asked to weigh the movants’ roles against three shootings in two other states, none charged to their own conduct, cannot realistically be expected to decide each defendant’s guilt as an individual rather than by reference to the enterprise the Government has built around them.”
A hearing to address the motion has been scheduled for July 1.
A third defendant, Asa Houston, is also asking to be severed from the Durk trial so his recently hired defense team can have time to look over all evidence in the case.
Last month, the government filed a third superseding indictment with additional charges of murder in aid of racketeering and conspiracy to commit stalking. Durk’s legal team has pushed back on the new charges in a statement put out via social media.
“This indictment is lipstick on a pig,” the statement reads. “For nearly two years now, federal prosecutors have desperately tried to fend off challenges to a very weak case. Now, just two months before trial– a trial that Durk Banks has demanded at every turn– they pull this pathetic pivot, recycling old accusations into a scrambling prosecutor’s back-up plan: allege racketeering and as many unrelated false claims as possible. This is not a sign of strength. It’s an acknowledgment of weakness. The fact remains: Durk Banks is innocent, no matter how many indictments they want to throw at him.”
The Lil Durk trial is currently scheduled to start on Aug. 20.
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