The back-and-forth over whether some of Lil Durk’s lyrics and videos will be evidence in his upcoming murder-for-hire trial has come to an end — almost.
On Friday (February 13), Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald issued a split decision that contained big wins for the prosecution, but also a few major victories for the rapper. It comes after a barrage of arguments back and forth and a Monday (February 9) hearing.
Prosecutors wanted to include excerpts of a dozen songs: nine music videos and three audio files. Durk’s legal team, led by attorney Drew Findling, vehemently objected.
When it came to music videos, the judge ruled that in most cases, screenshots would suffice instead of the videos themselves, since one of the reasons for inclusion was to show relationships between people in the videos. But he left room for the possible inclusion of one particular video, which prosecutors claim was offered as a reward by Durk for the participation of co-defendants in Durk’s alleged plan to offer a bounty for the death his rival Quando Rondo, but which instead resulted in the murder of Rondo’s cousin Saviay'a Robinson.
If the government can argue that the video "serves as proof of the bounty," and is not overly prejudicial, the judge said he would be open to allowing it.
When it came to lyrics, there were 13 excerpts that the government wanted to include. The judge allowed four of them and denied five. In several of the ones he allowed, the judge cut out portions of the excerpts.
As to the additional four, the judge said he would allow them "if the Government can adequately explain their probative value in the context of how they will be presented and admitted at trial." That is what prosecutors will attempt to do at the case’s next hearing on February 23.
Most of the lyrics that the judge refused to allow as evidence described behavior similar to that alleged in the case — that is, following someone in a car and shooting at them, which is what the case’s co-defendants are being accused of doing to Robinson, on Durk’s orders.
The judge decided that while the lyrics, which included things like, "Fool his ass, he think we buyin’ some cars, we hop out, scoom his ass," had a "moderate level of relevance," there was no evidence that the lyrics referred specifically to the alleged incident involving Robinson. In addition, the judge said, "there is virtually no evidence of when these lyrics were written or even recorded."
Friday’s decision contained rulings on numerous other pieces of evidence in addition to the lyrics and videos. The judge agreed to allow comments from fans that appeared on Durk’s X account, in order to bolster prosecutors’ theory that Durk faced public pressure to avenge King Von’s killing, which they claim in turn led Durk to target Quando Rondo. In addition, Durk’s 2023 comments about that pressure on DJ Akademiks’ podcast will be allowed.
Complex has reached out to Durk’s legal team for comment on the ruling, but they did not immediately respond.