LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — New attorneys for the person accused of orchestrating the homicide of Tupac Shakur inform the 8 Information Now Investigators their consumer was not concerned and his public statements shouldn’t be believed.
In September 2023, a Clark County grand jury indicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 62, on a homicide cost for the rap icon’s 1996 taking pictures loss of life. Davis has remained in custody since his arrest.
Lawyer Carl Arnold started working with Davis in January 2024. Final week, Davis retained Robert Draskovich and Michael Pandullo as his new attorneys, they mentioned Monday in an unique interview.
“We anticipate presenting a competing narrative and a more truthful narrative concerning those events of September 1996,” Draskovich mentioned. “Our client was not involved in the shooting.”
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who’s accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur, seems in court docket throughout a bond listening to on the Regional Justice Heart Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Overview-Journal by way of AP, Pool)
Draskovich most just lately represented ex-Clark County politician Robert Telles in his homicide trial. After three days of deliberations, a jury discovered Telles responsible of murdering Las Vegas Overview-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German.
In his 2019 ebook and in on-line interviews, Davis has publicly mentioned he was sitting within the entrance passenger seat of the automotive, which pulled up side-by-side with Shakur’s, earlier than the taking pictures close to the Las Vegas Strip. Marion “Suge” Knight, the then-head of Loss of life Row Information, was driving the automotive with Shakur sitting within the passenger seat. Knight was injured within the taking pictures. Shakur died from his accidents a number of days later.
Arnold beforehand informed the 8 Information Now Investigators to not consider Davis’ public statements. His new attorneys are following the identical playbook.
“You don’t think we should believe him?” 8 Information Now Investigator David Charns requested Draskovich and Pandullo.
“In reference to his claiming to have committed a murder that he did not? Don’t believe him in reference to that,” Draskovich mentioned.
Davis’ trial was scheduled to start in February. His new attorneys mentioned they are going to be prepared.
“Usually, cold cases that are brought many years later are brought on the basis of strong forensic evidence,” Pandullo mentioned about DNA. “We don’t have that here.”
A minimum of, but. Prosecutors have Davis’ personal phrases, whether or not true or not, and they’re going to possible admit extra proof because the trial nears. Prosecutors have confirmed Davis’ spouse made a resort reservation in her identify on the time of the taking pictures. Beforehand, attorneys for Davis mentioned there was no proof inserting him within the valley.
The 2019 ebook — titled “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” — describes the taking pictures.
“Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Davis writes within the ebook. “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.”
“Did he write that book himself? Are those statements accurate?” Pandullo mentioned, including the ebook had a co-author.
“It’s not a crime to claim that you did something that you didn’t in fact do,” Draskovich mentioned.
FILE – Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration occasion in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis, a former Southern California road gang chief, pleaded not responsible Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, to orchestrating a drive-by taking pictures that killed Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas. (AP Photograph/Frank Wiese, File)
In January, Clark County District Courtroom Decide Carli Kierny declined to dismiss Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ case over arguments from his lawyer that he obtained immunity safety in prior interviews. In that listening to, Kierny famous Davis’ ebook led prosecutors to research and produce the case to a grand jury. She famous the shortage of bodily proof and witnesses created an “uphill battle” for them.
In earlier court docket filings, Arnold mentioned Davis entered into a number of proffer agreements with federal and native officers concerning details about Shakur’s homicide. Davis once more entered into an identical settlement throughout a Los Angeles Police Division interview, paperwork mentioned. Prosecutors have mentioned any proffer settlement in Nevada would have needed to undergo a decide.
As a part of the Los Angeles Police Division’s investigation into the loss of life of Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, officers provided Davis a proffer, which Davis believed gave him immunity within the Las Vegas case. In 2009, Davis grew to become a confidential informant for a process power created to research Wallace’s loss of life, prosecutors mentioned.
“[Davis] denied any involvement in that murder, however, volunteered his knowledge about the murder of Tupac Shakur,” paperwork mentioned. “Thereafter, on Dec. 18, 2008, he provided a recorded version of events similar to his other recountings of the murder, all of which was consistent with the known evidence from the early investigation.”
Davis additionally offered an LVMPD murder detective a press release in 2009, prosecutors mentioned, the place he “attempted to elude responsibility for the murder of Shakur.” Through the interview, Davis admitted to being in Las Vegas on the time of the Tyson battle, prosecutors mentioned.
Through the interview, Davis additionally informed the detective about how he secured a firearm, he mentioned his nephew used to shoot Knight and Shakur, paperwork mentioned.
“We anticipate providing a much more in-depth and truthful explanation about why those statements were made,” Draskovich mentioned.
This picture offered by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division reveals the bullet-riddled automotive through which rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in September 1996, in Las Vegas. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, was arrested Sept. 29, 2023, and charged with orchestrating the drive-by taking pictures of Shakur close to the Las Vegas Strip that additionally wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division by way of AP)
The attorneys add that they might subpoena Knight and Sean “Diddy” Combs to be witnesses at trial.
A listening to was scheduled for Sept. 9 for his homicide case. A trial was scheduled for subsequent winter, although the date could possibly be pushed as a result of newest submitting.
Davis was scheduled to be sentenced later this month for an unrelated jail battle.
