A man who has already pleaded guilty to killing someone in the 2022 Quando Rondo shooting testified Monday in the Lil Durk trial that he was never paid for it, and that he kept asking Durk for the money. Keith Jones, known as OTF Flacka, took the stand in Los Angeles federal court as the government’s second cooperating witness, according to reporting from journalist Michael Blackshire and Trap Lore Ross, who have been covering the proceedings daily from the courthouse.
A cooperating witness is someone who has admitted guilt in a case and agreed to testify against a co defendant, usually in exchange for a lighter sentence. Jones pleaded guilty to the murder of 24 year old Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson. He follows Kacey “OTF Jam” Hester, who testified last week and also admitted to being one of the shooters.
Jones testified that Deandre “DeDe” Wilson, an OTF member, called him and told him Durk was offering $1 million to whoever found and killed Rondo. He said he took that seriously because he had previously seen Durk with a large amount of cash during a Million Dollaz Worth of Game appearance. Hester had put the figure at a million or half a million during his own testimony last week.
The frustration Jones described on the stand is the part that gives the government’s theory its shape. By his account, he participated, the money was promised, and it never arrived, so he went back to Durk asking for it more than once. Prosecutors are using that to argue there was an arrangement in the first place. The defense will use the same testimony to argue that a man who felt cheated has every reason to say what the government wants to hear.
The case at the center of the Lil Durk trial goes back to August 2022. Rondo, whose legal name is Tyquian Bowman, was the target of a shooting at a Los Angeles gas station near the Beverly Center. He survived. His cousin Robinson was killed. Prosecutors say the plot was retaliation for the 2020 killing of King Von, Durk’s close friend and collaborator, and that Durk offered money and other rewards to whoever carried it out. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Weiner told jurors in his opening that Durk was consumed with revenge.
Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, has pleaded not guilty and faces up to life in federal prison if convicted. Murder for hire is the charge, which means the government does not have to prove he was present or fired a weapon. It has to prove he arranged for someone else to do it.
Jones’ testimony did not line up cleanly with what jurors heard last week, and the gaps matter for the defense. Hester testified that he met Jones during a stint in juvenile detention. Jones testified that he met Hester around the time of the murder. Small on its face, but the entire defense strategy in the Lil Durk trial rests on convincing jurors that the cooperators are unreliable men who cut deals to save themselves.
Durk’s attorney Marissa Goldberg laid that argument out in her opening statement. Her position is that Kavon “OTF Vonnie” Grant, the third cooperating witness and the man prosecutors describe as Durk’s right hand, is the one who organized the shooting on his own and then pointed at Durk once he was caught. Goldberg told jurors Grant worked for Durk’s management company and had access to a company credit card, which she said gave him a convenient story to tell investigators. Grant and King Von were cousins who were close, lived together and shared a bank account.
Grant is expected to testify this week. Prosecutors told the judge on Friday that they will likely rest their case Tuesday or Wednesday depending on how cross examination goes, which means the defense could begin presenting soon after. Durk’s team has not put on its case yet, and everything jurors have heard so far in the Lil Durk trial has come from the government’s side of the room.
