Hester on Friday, the Fifth Day of Rapper Lil Durk's Murder-for-hire Trial in Los Angeles, Confronting the Admitted Shooter With Jail Calls

Going home, that's your mission? Steel asked after playing a May 2023 jail call in which Hester told his wife to "trust" him. Hester 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. Jurors saw the note and learned that by May 18, 2023, Hester had signed a cooperation agreement with federal officials.

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, and claimed he could hear Banks' voice in the background of another call. Hester told jurors he ended up in Southern California with a group of men tasked with finding and killing Quando Rondo.

He acknowledged 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. "You don't get in the way of somebody killing somebody. 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 cross-examination, jurors heard portions of Hester's first recorded interview with federal investigators from May 24, 2023. In the recording, Hester said he had "never" spoken with Banks about King Von's death before traveling to California and had "never had a conversation" with Durk about "putting money" on Quando Rondo's head. When asked if he knew anything about a bounty, Hester replied, "I don't know.

About two hours later, he said, "It was never a number. 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 interview and why his testimony nt 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 the amount discussed was "a million dollars or half a million dollars. 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. Steel asserted that Hester invented claims against the "All My Life rapper in the hopes of helping himself.