Tupac Murder Suspect Claims Past Statements About Murder Were ‘Entertainment’ in New Court Filing
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Duane “Keefe D” Davis has been denied bail since he was first arrested and charged with murder in September in connection to the killing of Tupac Shakur 27 years prior. Last week, his lawyers filed a motion requesting the 60-year-old be released while pending trial, which is scheduled to begin on June 3. Davis’ legal representatives are also requesting that the court establish a “reasonable bail,” according to KTNV Las Vegas.
“Duane should not be denied bail in this case. It cannot be said that the proof is evident and the presumption great that Duane is guilty of first-degree murder for the death of Shakur,” the motion, filed on Thursday, reads. “This Court should release Duane on house arrest with electronic monitoring pending trial.”
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Davis is being represented by special public defenders Robert Arroyo and Charles Cano. He previously lost a bid to hire Ross Goodman, a private defense attorney. The bail request urges the court to set an amount of no more than $100,000 on the basis that an “astounding amount of hearsay and speculative testimony” emerged during grand jury proceedings.
The lawyers pushed back on state reliance on excerpts from Compton Street Legend, the memoir Davis published in 2019, claiming his words were simply “entertainment.”
“The truthfulness of the content of the interviews was never verified. The book and interviews were done for entertainment purposes and to make money from a situation that Kading and others had already profited from,” his lawyers wrote. The book essentially solidified his involvement in the shooting, which police in Las Vegas and Los Angeles have been investigating for nearly three decades. They also maintained that Davis has “moved on from his old lifestyle,” having been settled in Henderson for the past decade.
“He is not getting his bi-monthly oncologist check-ups. Additionally, his heart health has declined. He was put back on a group of medications to try to get things under control,” Davis’ lawyers said in the motion, adding his health to the list of reasons for their request. “He has to take these medications in the jail because he is unable to do the things necessary to maintain proper health. His diet in jail is terrible. He is given heavily-processed meals full of sodium that barely pass as food.”
Davis, a former street gang leader, pleaded not guilty in November. And while police do not suspect that he was the triggerman, he is being positioned as the leader of the group that carried out the rapper’s murder. Of the suspects in the case — which included Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson, Terry Brown, and Deandrae Smith — Davis is the only surviving individual. Las Vegas prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for Davis, who could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
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