Lil Durk's defense took aim at the government's star witness, with Brian Steel unleashing a brutal attack on OTF Jam as he argued that Durk should not be convicted on the word of a convicted killer.
According to Los Angeles Magazine’s Taylor Parise, Steel spent the opening minutes of his closing argument on Tuesday (Sept. 8) tearing into Kacey "OTF Jam" Hester, telling a Los Angeles federal jury that Hester cannot be trusted with Durk's freedom.
“He has been incarcerated more in his lifetime than he has been out," Steel told jurors, per Parise. “This man is not human … That's who the government wants you to rely on.”
Steel then questioned why Hester's account held together on the stand at all.
"Is it because they've already rehearsed with Hester?" Steel asked, before adding, "How dare they put him in front of you and continue this story. They know it's a lie."
The attorney argued that Hester and fellow cooperating witnesses Kavon “OTF Vonnie” Grant and Keith Jones each stood to gain from testimony that pointed directly at the rapper, whose legal name is Durk Banks.
Grant, Banks' former personal assistant, took a plea deal and testified that he drove the gunmen away after the shooting.
Steel also pressed the defense theory that Banks was singled out for who he is rather than what he did, saying, "They put a target on a human being. A celebrity human being. That's why you're here."
Prosecutors allege Banks financed a hit team that flew from Chicago to Los Angeles and fired at least 18 rounds at a gas station near the Beverly Center on Aug. 19, 2022, killing Saviay'a Robinson. The intended target, according to the government, was Robinson's cousin Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Bowman, who was not hit. Prosecutors say the plot was revenge for the 2020 killing of King Von.
Steel leaned on the burden of proof, reminding jurors that membership in Banks' OTF collective does not equal participation in what its members did, and that the government must prove Banks entered an agreement with the men who pulled the trigger.
"Durk Banks is not guilty," Steel told the jury. "If you have one reason to doubt that Durk is involved … the verdict is not guilty."
Both sides rested last week without Banks taking the stand.
The rapper faces a potential life sentence if convicted on the five counts in the jury instructions, which range from conspiracy to commit stalking to using interstate facilities for murder-for-hire resulting in death.
Jury deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday, September 9.
