The Takeoff murder case has gone four years without a trial, and the wait for justice just got longer. Patrick Xavier Clark, the man accused of killing the Migos rapper, was supposed to face a jury this November. Instead, his murder trial has been pushed to April 15, 2027, leaving the case unresolved more than four years after Takeoff’s death.
So, how did a case that resulted in an arrest just one month after the shooting end up taking nearly five years to reach trial?
Takeoff, born Kirsnick Khari Ball, was just 28 when he was fatally shot outside 810 Billiards & Bowling in downtown Houston on November 1, 2022. The rapper was attending a private gathering with his uncle and Migos groupmate, Quavo, when an argument connected to a dice game escalated into gunfire.
Houston police said multiple people fired weapons during the confrontation. Takeoff was not involved in the game or the argument. He was struck by gunfire and pronounced dead at the scene. Two other people were injured but survived.
By December 1, 2022, police had arrested Clark, a Houston DJ, and charged him with murder. Investigators alleged surveillance footage showed Clark firing toward a crowd outside the venue. They also reported finding his fingerprints on a wine bottle recovered near the shooting.
Another man, Cameron Joshua, had been arrested on November 22 on firearms charges connected to the incident. Prosecutors said Joshua was not believed to have fired a gun during the shooting. Clark remains the person charged with Takeoff’s murder.
Following his arrest, Clark was initially held on a $2 million bond, which was later reduced to $1 million. He posted bond and was released from jail on January 5, 2023, under conditions including GPS monitoring.
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On May 25, 2023, a Harris County grand jury indicted Clark on a murder charge. An indictment allowed the prosecution to move forward, but it was not a finding of guilt. Clark has consistently denied killing Takeoff.
The Takeoff murder case then spent years moving through pretrial proceedings, including requests for evidence and other preparation by the defense.
In April 2024, another issue surfaced. Prosecutors notified Clark’s attorneys that Rochelle Austen, a former Houston Forensic Science Center analyst identified as a potential witness, had been fired following problems involving evidence handling in other cases.
The disclosure gave Clark’s defense information it could potentially use to challenge the analyst’s credibility. However, the documented sample errors involved other cases, and there has been no public finding that evidence in Takeoff’s case was mishandled. The forensic issue has not been confirmed as a cause of the latest postponement.
By December 2025, the case still had no trial date. During a court appearance that month, defense attorney Carl Moore told Houston’s KPRC 2 that both sides had been exchanging evidence and working to complete that process. He said no plea agreements had been discussed. The court moved another pretrial conference to January 8, 2026.
There finally appeared to be a clear path forward in February 2026. Jury selection was scheduled for November 5, with trial proceedings expected to begin November 9.
But the Takeoff murder case experienced another change in March when Clark replaced attorney Letitia Quinones-Hollins with Kent Schaffer. Attorneys Dan Cogdell and Anthony Osso also joined his defense team.
In September, Clark’s attorneys requested permission to have an independent expert examine bullets and other evidence collected by Houston police. That request was another step in preparing to challenge the prosecution’s case.
Then came October 8. Harris County court records show a pretrial conference was reset at the defense’s request.
The biggest explanation for the latest delay came from Schaffer, who said the state had recently turned over evidence Clark’s previous attorney had not seen.
“Both sides had numerous trial conflicts, and the state recently turned over a large amount of evidence that had not been seen by Mr. Clark’s previous counsel,” Schaffer said. “While there is nothing harmful in that evidence, we still need time to review it. We still fully expect to prevail.”
That leaves two confirmed reasons for the latest postponement: scheduling conflicts involving both sides and the defense’s need to examine the additional material. The available reporting does not establish that prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence or that the earlier forensic concerns caused the April 2027 setting.
Meanwhile, Takeoff’s mother, Titania Davenport, pursued a separate wrongful death lawsuit against the bowling alley’s operators. That case was settled in December 2025 for an undisclosed amount, but the civil settlement did not resolve the criminal charge.
As of November 4, 2026, Clark remains free on bond and has pleaded not guilty. He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.
The next scheduled jury trial is April 15, 2027. For Takeoff’s loved ones, four years have passed since his death, but the criminal case has still not reached a verdict.
