Lil Duke’s case could expand after prosecutors said they might add old incidents in Chicago and Atlanta before trial.
Lil Durk and his co-defendants may face new charges in a federal murder-for-hire case in Los Angeles, and prosecutors say they may expand the case before the case goes to trial.
The possible expansion was mentioned in a May 21 court filing by Deandre Wilson, one of Durk’s co-defendants. Wilson asked a federal judge to reconsider his detention and release him on bail while the case progresses.
Prosecutors notified defense attorneys on May 13 that they were considering filing additional charges by June 3, Wilson’s filing said. The new charges would add two earlier alleged incidents as direct evidence: a 2022 incident in Chicago and a 2019 incident in Atlanta.
This could create significant timing issues for all parties. Wilson’s attorneys said the additional charges could push the case’s current trial date to Aug. 20, 2026, requiring new arraignments, more evidence, more motions and more investigations.
Wilson’s lawyers said the two incidents had nothing to do with him and were central to his bid for freedom. He argued that he should not have been jailed for months while lawyers prepared for an incident that prosecutors didn’t even bring him to the scene.
The Atlanta incident appears to date back to a January 2019 shooting near the Varsity restaurant in downtown Atlanta. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, had faced felony charges in the case, but the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office dropped those charges in 2022.
The charges include attempted murder, aggravated assault, participation in criminal street gang activity, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The victim was shot in the leg after an altercation near the restaurant.
A motion to dismiss filed on Oct. 17, 2022, said prosecutors reviewed the facts and chose not to prosecute, even though probable cause existed for Durk’s arrest. “For some reason, they believe Mr. Banks was involved because some of the people he was affiliated with were involved in the shooting. We vehemently deny that,” Durk’s attorney told Fox 5 Atlanta.
The Chicago incident appears to involve the January 2022 killing of Stephen Mack outside the Roseland Community Center. ABC7 Chicago reported in December 2024 that unreleased court records claimed Banks was behind the fatal shooting, but Durk has not yet been charged in the murder.
Such is the tension in Wilson’s new document. His attorneys have said prosecutors hope to use the Chicago and Atlanta incidents as direct evidence in the federal case, even though both incidents predated the August 2022 murder of Quando Rondo’s cousin, Lul Pab, in Los Angeles and was at the center of the indictment.
Wilson has been in custody since his first court appearance on November 15, 2024, meaning he has spent more than 18 months behind bars before the trial begins. The government opposes his request for release and the broader case against Durk remains grim.
Durk was arrested near the airport in October 2024 and prosecutors said he had booked multiple international flights. The Justice Department said he was charged in a superseding federal indictment accusing him of conspiring with others to kill a rival rapper in Los Angeles, a plot prosecutors linked to the 2020 killing of King Von in Atlanta.
The case originated from a shooting incident near the Beverly Center on August 19, 2022. The original target was Quindo Rondo, but Lul Pabou was killed in broad daylight. Durk, who has pleaded not guilty, remains jailed and has been denied bail due to the seriousness of the charges and concerns about flight risk.
As of the filing on May 22, the joint trial was still scheduled for August 20, 2026.
