LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The lawyer representing Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the man accused of orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, said the public should not believe his client as he prepares to represent him in what is setting up to be the year’s biggest trial.
Las Vegas Metro police arrested Davis, 60, on Friday, Sept. 29, near his Henderson home. The day before, a grand jury indicted him on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement.
The shooting on Sept. 7, 1996, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a block off the Las Vegas Strip, followed a fight earlier in the night. In the hours before the murder, Shakur’s group reportedly attacked Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang and Davis’ nephew. Davis, Anderson and two other men were in the shooter’s car, Davis has publicly claimed, adding he handed Anderson the gun used to shoot Shakur.
“You do not think he had anything to do with the murder of Tupac Shakur?” 8 News Now Investigator David Charns asked Carl Arnold, whom Davis hired in January.
“No,” Arnold said. “I don’t believe he’s there.”
Davis has publicly said he was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, which pulled up side-by-side to Tupac’s before the shooting at the intersection. Marion “Suge” Knight, the then-head of Death Row Records, was driving the car with Shakur in the passenger seat. Knight was injured in the shooting.
Evidence in the case includes large segments from Davis’ book, published in 2019, and video clips from TV and online interviews.
“Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Davis writes in the book. “It was the first and only time in my life that I could relate to the police command, ‘Keep your hands where I can see them.’ Instead, Pac pulled out a strap, and that’s when the fireworks started. One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back.”
“I would definitely say he’s a liar,” Arnold said about his client. “He keeps repeating this, that whole thing is unfair. He felt like he had protection from his earlier statements that were made.”
As part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into the death of Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, officials offered Davis a proffer, which Davis believed gave him immunity in the Las Vegas case. Arnold said the proffer protected Davis from prosecution for previous drug offenses.
“He wasn’t going to just come in and tell the truth unless we compelled him to do that,” former LAPD detective Greg Kading told the 8 News Now Investigators last year. “We had to give them a reason to tell the truth. Get some leverage on him so to speak.”
That leverage did not include protection from any public statements, Kading said.
“He didn’t have information but said, ‘Hey, let me try to rehash this Tupac murder, give you some information,’” Arnold said. “He filled in the gaps as they were asking questions.”
Those statements later unraveled into paid interviews and the book, Arnold said.
“He’s sitting over there saying, ‘How come I didn’t make any money off of this,’” Arnold said. “And now someone is presenting him with the opportunity to make some money and now, OK, he’s looking at these are his last years of life.”
“Isn’t it kind of stupid to do that and then get hit with a murder charge?” Charns asked.
“It was really stupid,” Arnold said. “But then again, here’s what he’s thinking. He already said all these things way back when.”
It will be up to prosecutors to prove Davis’ own words are true beyond a reasonable doubt, Arnold said. As far as the defense attorney knows, no video exists of the shooting and its aftermath nor is there DNA evidence tying Davis to the crime. The gun in the shooting was never located. Evidence includes hotel receipts from Davis’ group at the time of the shooting.
“There has to be some type of corroboration,” Arnold said. “Anybody can say, ‘Well I gave this person the gun and he shot Tupac.’”
“If he didn’t do it, does he know who did?” Charns asked.
“No, he does not know who did,” Arnold said.
“And why should we trust ‘Keffe D’ now?” Charns asked.
“You shouldn’t trust ‘Keffe D,’” Arnold said. “You absolutely shouldn’t — and that should be the thing that causes him to walk.”
During the July raid of Davis’ home, police seized electronics and two “giant bins of photographs,” a detective said. The 8 News Now Investigators first reported the news of the raid.
“I was looking for any documentation, any photographs that might connect him to the murder of Tupac Shakur or any of the YouTube videos, the documentaries, the book and during the search of those bins I located a, like a small photo album that was cloth bound and inside that photo album were numerous clippings of the murder of Tupac Shakur dating back to 1996 and in that time frame, and also his book, recovered a copy of that, a magazine talking about the murder of Tupac Shakur, and I believe I also recovered a copy of Greg Kading’s book ‘Murder Rap,’” the detective said.
Davis’ jury trial was scheduled to begin in November. Arnold said he planned to subpoena Knight, the only living witness to the shooting, and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.
Davis remained in custody Thursday on $750,000 bail. Prosecutors and Arnold will be back in court next week to update Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny on their progress in preparing for trial. Should Davis come up with the money, Kierny ordered a source hearing before his release.