KTNV
Duane Keith Davis pleaded not guilty on November 2nd.
Las Vegas CNN –
The 60-year-old man charged with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur pleaded not guilty in a Las Vegas court on Thursday.
Duane Keith Davis, known as “Keffe D,” appeared in court Thursday for his third scheduled arraignment on a charge of murder with the use of a deadly weapon in a gang killing.
Davis is accused of orchestrating the Sept. 7, 1996, shooting that killed Shakur, the 25-year-old pioneer whose short, prolific career cemented his legacy as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all time. His untimely death gave this mystique a dark note and was the subject of conspiracy theories for years.
After Davis told Judge Tierra Jones that he was unable to retain a local attorney, Jones said the court would appoint an attorney to represent him. This was the third planned indictment against Davis. The previous two trials were postponed at Davis’ request so he could seek an attorney.
Las Vegas attorney Ross Goodman was supposed to represent Davis and even appeared in court with him two weeks ago before officially taking over the case. However, Goodman is no longer involved in the case and said in an email Wednesday that Davis was unable to abide by the terms of the agreement.
After Thursday’s trial, Goodman told CNN: “I support Mr. Davis and hope to get the case back. “There are people who are trying to raise the financial resources to get me on the case.”
Prosecutors said Thursday the state does not plan to seek the death penalty against Davis.
Davis was arrested on September 29 and has been held without bail since then. He waived his right to a trial within 60 days and the next status review of his case is scheduled for November 7.
Shakur’s killing was the subject of a decade-long police investigation that culminated last month with the arrest of Davis following his grand jury indictment. He is the only suspect in the case who is still alive, police said.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
An image on a television monitor shows a photo of Tupac Shakur, left, and Marion “Suge” Knight in a car in Las Vegas the night Shakur was killed, as officers in Las Vegas hold a news conference about the arrest on September 29 deter a suspect.
For years, Davis has been going to the crime scene and publicly admitting that he was sitting in the front seat of a white Cadillac when it drove next to Shakur’s car and shots were fired from the back seat. Shakur was shot four times and died six days later.
Authorities have described Davis as the ringmaster of the plot to kill Shakur, which they say was retaliation for an attack on Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, that stemmed from a larger conflict between two gangs in Compton, California.
Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, then-CEO of Death Row Records, were connected to the Mob Piru gang, said Jason Johansson, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s homicide lieutenant. Davis and Anderson were affiliated with the Southside Compton Crips, Johansson said.
At the time of the fatal shooting, Shakur was in Las Vegas to see Mike Tyson box at the MGM Grand Hotel, an event also attended by Davis and his nephew. While they were leaving the fight, members of Death Row Records kicked and punched Anderson near an elevator bank at the MGM Grand, Johansson said, playing surveillance footage that showed Shakur and Knight among the attendees.
Afterward, Davis “began devising a plan to obtain a firearm and retaliate against Suge Knight and Mr. Shakur,” Johansson said. Davis got a gun and then got into the white Cadillac with Anderson, Terrence Brown and Deandre Smith, the lieutenant said.
According to a copy of the indictment, Anderson and Smith were in the back seat. And at some point, Davis gave the gun to the passengers in the back seat, Johansson said.
Then someone pulled the trigger – although the indictment doesn’t say who. Either way, Davis was “the catalyst for this group of people who committed this crime,” Johansson said. “He orchestrated the plan that was carried out to commit this crime.”
Anderson denied involvement in a 1998 gang-related shooting to CNN before his death.
Davis confessed to his involvement in the crime in 2009, but authorities were unable to file charges because a suspect agreed to provide potentially useful information to an investigation that generally cannot be used as evidence against the suspect – a former prosecutor Case detective Greg Kading told CNN.
The investigation was “reinvigorated” in 2018, Johansson said, thanks in part to “Davis’ own admissions of his involvement.” Authorities felt it was their last chance to solve the case and file charges, he said.
According to an affidavit seeking a search warrant, police searched Davis’ wife’s home in Henderson, Nevada, in July, looking for any writings or documents related to Shakur’s killing. They seized a copy of Davis’ memoir, in which he wrote about street gang life and the shooting of Shakur and described himself and Knight – who was in prison for manslaughter in an unrelated case – as the only two living witnesses to the shooting.