Posted on: April 23, 2024, 08:49h.
Last updated on: April 23, 2024, 08:51h.
The defense attorney representing the accused murderer of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur said on Wednesday that his client, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, repeatedly lied about his involvement in the 1996 drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
“He himself is giving different stories,” attorney Carl Arnold told reporters outside the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday, following a brief meeting with a Nevada judge. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 4.
Davis, a former Los Angeles gang kingpin, stands accused of orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur. In Nevada, that’s legally equivalent to pulling the trigger yourself.
According to Arnold, his client’s accounts of the killing are all fictional and prosecutors cannot back them up with any physical evidence.
“We haven’t seen more than just his word,” Arnold said of Davis’ police and media interviews since 2008, and of his 2019 self-published book, “Compton Street Legend: Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops.”
In that book, Davis admits driving his nephew, Orlando Anderson, in the white Cadillac that pulled up and opened fire on Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane.
Shakur, 25, died six days later from his injuries.
Arnold said that police and prosecutors lack proof that Davis was even in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.
“We’ve seen video of everybody else here,” he said. “Where’s video of him?” Arnold said of Davis. “There’s just nothing saying that he was here.”
The video in question was taken from a security camera at the MGM Grand lobby. In it, Shakur, Knight, and their friend and fellow Bloods gang member Trevon Lane are shown assaulting Anderson, a member of the rival Crips gang, in retaliation for a previous incident.
Arnold said Davis would not testify at his trial, but he intends to call Knight to the stand — even though, last October, Knight told TMZ that he would refuse to testify if called.
Murder Was the Case That They Gave Him
Davis, 60, was arrested on Sept. 29, 2023, after being indicted for Shakur’s murder by a grand jury. Though his bail was set at $750K on January 9, he has remained in custody at the Clark County Detention Center since his arrest.
On Wednesday, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson characterized the prosecution’s evidence as “strong.”
In November, Davis pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison.
