RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Defense lawyer Brian Steel wasted little time Friday resuming his withering cross-examination of Kasey "OTF Jam" Hester on the fifth day of rapper Lil Durk 's murder-for-hire trial in Los Angeles .
"Going home, that's your mission?" Steel asked after confronting Hester with a seemingly damaging jail call with his wife.
"Me, trying to go home? Yes," Hester replied.
In the jail call from May 2023 played in court Friday, Hester was heard telling his wife to "trust" him. He had just been arrested riding in a car with a gun while on parole after serving 12 years on an attempted murder conviction. While in custody, he slipped a note to a guard that read, "I know about murders. I don't want to talk on camera. I know a lot." Jurors saw the note in court during the start of Hester's testimony and learned that by May 18, 2023, Hester had signed the cooperation agreement with federal officials that landed him on the witness stand in Los Angeles.
Under questioning by prosecutors, Hester testified that Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, placed a bounty on rival rapper Quando Rondo 's head after a 2020 confrontation in Atlanta that ended with the fatal shooting of Durk's close friend and musical protégé King Von .
Hester said that after his release from prison, he began spending time with Durk and members of his Only The Family collective. He eventually received a call from an associate telling him to board a flight without even packing a bag, he testified. Hester claimed he could hear Banks' voice in the background of another call with the associate.
Hester told jurors that he ended up in Southern California with a group of men tasked with finding and killing Quando Rondo. Hester acknowledged that he was one of three gunmen who opened fire on Quando Rondo's vehicle at a gas station near the Beverly Center on Aug. 19, 2022, killing Quando Rondo's cousin, Saviay'a Robinson, known as Lul Pab. Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Bowman, survived.
Hester testified Thursday that he wanted to back out of the shooting but believed doing so could get him killed. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century
"You don't get in the way of somebody killing somebody. Like, that is not what we do. Like, where I'm from, it is not what you do. That will get you killed," he told jurors. "So I'm just trying to just go with the flow and let it be what it's going to be."
During Hester's cross-examination by Steel on Friday, jurors heard portions of his first recorded interview with federal investigators. The May 24, 2023 interview came after Hester had already spoken with officials several times without being recorded.
In the recording, Hester said he had "never" spoken with Banks about King Von's death before traveling to California. He also said he had "never had a conversation" with Durk about "putting money" on Quando Rondo's head before he landed at the airport in San Diego and ended up with the group of alleged hitmen. When an investigator asked him directly if he knew anything about a bounty on Quando Rondo, Hester replied, "I don't know. I really can't say."
About two hours later, investigators returned to the subject and asked what Hester knew about the size of any purported bounty. "It was never a number," he said. "But Durk let it be known, 'If you get him, you're gonna be straight.'"
Steel pressed Hester to explain why his answers appeared to "dramatically change" over the course of the hours-long interview and why his testimony this week went further still. On the witness stand, Hester told jurors that before the shooting, he was at a studio in Atlanta when Banks personally addressed a group and said anyone who killed Quando Rondo would be "straight." Hester also testified that the amount discussed was "a million dollars or half a million dollars." Related Content Tupac Murder Trial Testimony Ends With Cop Saying He Was Told to ‘Stand Down’ on Keffe D Arrest Lindsay Clancy’s Lawyer Calls Trial ‘Repulsive’ Case Built on ‘Manipulation’ in Closing Argument Lil Durk Trial: Jurors See Unreleased ‘Redman’ Video, Defense Calls It ‘Expression of Art’ ‘Below Deck’ Star Nathan Gallagher Breaks Silence on Domestic Violence Arrest: ‘I Made Mistakes’
Wearing a white T-shirt and light-colored pants while in the custody of U.S. marshals after pleading guilty in the case, Hester said that when investigators first asked about a bounty, he thought they were asking whether Banks had personally offered him money in a one-on-one conversation. He said he later clarified that an offer had been made in a "group situation." Hester also maintained that he had told investigators about the Atlanta studio meeting, but that they apparently failed to include it in their notes.
The government's case against Banks relies heavily on cooperating witnesses. In addition to Hester, two other men have pleaded guilty and agreed to testify. Prosecutors identified them in opening statements as Keith Jones, whom prosecutors identified as another of the shooters, and Kavon "OTF Vonnie" Grant, a close friend of King Von who later worked for Banks and who obtained the ski masks, hotel rooms, guns, and vehicles for the 2022 shooting.
As he cross-examined Hester Friday, Steel showed jurors a series of messages Hester exchanged with a woman who allegedly was acting as his go-between to communicate with Hester when the men were in custody last year. Steel suggested the two men were trying to "collude" and get their stories straight. Hester claimed he never discussed the case with Grant and either way, he'd already given his statement to prosecutors.
Hester testified that after Robinson was killed, Grant set fire to the stolen car used by the shooters in an effort to destroy evidence. He said he later decided to cooperate because the killing had been "weighing" on him.
Steel then confronted Hester with a series of ...
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