DJ Akademiks says prosecutors in Lil Durk’s federal murder for hire trial put his life in danger by putting his name into the case, and he spent a stream making that argument directly to the prosecutor by name. He said he is not a witness, that nobody ever asked him whether he received anything from Durk, and that what is being used against him is an interpretation of his facial expression.
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His name has come up repeatedly in the Los Angeles courtroom where Durk Banks and two co-defendants are on trial over an August 2022 shooting at a gas station near the Beverly Center that killed Saviay’a Robinson, known as Lul Pab. Prosecutors say the intended target was Quando Rondo. On Wednesday, as the jury began deliberating, Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald sided with Akademiks over how often his name was being invoked, and Akademiks thanked the judge by name for sympathizing with him.
His objection is that the government suggested he received a confession from Durk based on how he reacted during an interview. He said no one ever asked him if that happened. He called it dangerous to assume that a look on his face means he affirmed communications about a murder, and said it once and then said it again.
The part he kept returning to is who else is in this case. He named three cooperating witnesses the prosecution has leaned on and described them as prosecutors and the defense have. Flacka, who he called an admitted murderer. OTF Jam, who the defense has described as a serial killer, and who Akademiks said walked into a police station and confessed to three murders. And OTF Vonni, who he said was tied in the trial to possible cartel connections. His point is that these are the people who now have his name in their proceedings, and that his introduction to them was not his choice.
He also laid out the imbalance that gives the complaint its weight. Those witnesses, he said, get witness protection, new identities, and the option to relocate somewhere nobody knows them. He does not get any of that. He said his address is on Google and called himself a sitting duck, just a media personality in hip hop with no criminal ties, born in Jamaica and living in New Jersey, who has never been to Chicago.
Then he turned it into a question. He pointed to how the government itself described the shooting, saying the men involved pulled up in a stolen Infiniti down an alleyway, got out, and killed somebody in front of the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. If prosecutors are telling a jury those men were that bold, he asked, what does anybody think they would do to him.
He addressed the prosecutor directly, asking him to understand that you cannot throw civilians to the wolves just because you are trying to convict Durk. He said it twice. He also raised the possibility that if OTF Jam does not get the deal he is expecting, Jam blames Durk, and then blames Akademiks for messing up his plan.
Akademiks said he is not picking a side in the trial itself and that justice should prevail.
The jury is still out. Durk faces life in prison if he is convicted on all five counts, which include conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking using a dangerous weapon, stalking resulting in death, conspiracy to use interstate commerce facilities in a murder for hire resulting in death, and using interstate commerce facilities in a murder for hire resulting in death. A separate racketeering case over whether OTF operated as a gang is still waiting after this one.
Nothing Akademiks laid out has been established as fact by the court. What is established is that his name kept coming up in a federal courtroom where he is not charged, not called, and not protected.
