Federal Prosecutors Fight Bids to Overturn Stalking Convictions Tied to 2022 Attack on Quando Rondo Entourage
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles have urged a judge to reject post-trial motions from two co-defendants of rapper Lil Durk who are seeking to overturn their stalking convictions. Defense attorneys argue the fatal 2022 shooting of Saviay’a Robinson does not legally constitute stalking because he was not the intended target, while prosecutors maintain the group knowingly tracked and endangered everyone inside the vehicle.
Federal prosecutors are pushing back against efforts by two men convicted in connection with a deadly 2022 shooting in Los Angeles to overturn their guilty verdicts, according to reporting by Baller Alert citing court filings.
Deandre Wilson, known as OTF Dede, and David Lindsey, known as Browneyez, have petitioned U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald to either overturn three stalking convictions or grant them a new trial. In court documents, the defense arguments center on the assertion that 24-year-old Saviay’a Robinson, also known as Lul Pab, was never the intended target during the August 19, 2022, attack that ultimately took his life.
According to Baller Alert, the shooting occurred near the Beverly Center when gunmen opened fire on a black Cadillac Escalade carrying rapper Tyquian Bowman, known professionally as Quando Rondo, alongside members of his entourage. The incident was alleged by authorities to be an act of retaliation stemming from the November 2020 killing of Chicago artist King Von, a close friend of Lil Durk.
In a 31-page response filed on October 14, prosecutors argued that the evidence presented during the trial demonstrated an organized, multi-day surveillance and ambush effort that endangered all occupants of the vehicle. Attorneys for Wilson and Lindsey contended that prosecutors failed to prove a legally sufficient course of conduct under federal stalking statutes, arguing that the victims were unaware they were being actively tracked and questioning whether the victims experienced qualifying distress.
Prosecutors countered in their filing that the federal stalking statute does not require targets to be conscious of surveillance while it occurs, Baller Alert reported. The government maintained that the defendants actively pursued Bowman and knew others were in the vehicle, citing evidence including a 911 call reflecting the impact of the shooting. The government noted that a jury reasonably concluded the defendants intended to stalk Robinson as well as Bowman.
The distinction is critical because Wilson and Lindsey were convicted on September 11 of conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking using a dangerous weapon, and stalking resulting in death, the last of which carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment. Jurors acquitted both men of two murder-for-hire counts. Lil Durk was acquitted of all five charges in that proceeding, though he remains detained on separate charges.
Judge Fitzgerald has not yet ruled on the defense motions, and neither defendant has received a final sentence as the court prepares to consider the arguments.