LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas plans to ask a judge Tuesday to dismiss him before trial to be placed under house arrest in June.
Court-appointed attorneys for Duane “Keffe D” Davis say their 60-year-old client is in poor health, poses no threat to the community and will not flee to avoid trial. They want the judge to set his bail at no more than $100,000.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and has been held without bail since his arrest Sept. 29 outside his home in suburban Henderson, where Las Vegas police served a search warrant in mid-July. He is the only person ever charged in the shooting, which also injured rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight.
Prosecutors allege in a court filing last week that jail phone records and a list of names provided to Davis' family members show that witnesses are at risk of harm if Davis is released.
They also drew attention to Davis' own statements since 2008 — in police interviews, in his tell-all 2019 memoir and in the media — which provide strong evidence that he staged the September 1996 drive-by shooting.
Knight, now 58, is serving 28 years in a California prison for a shooting that killed a Compton businessman in 2015.
Meanwhile, Davis is being held at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, where detainees' phone calls are routinely recorded. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in a Nevada state prison.
In a recording of a call in October, prosecutors say Davis' son said the defendant gave the “green light” to killing Shakur. Prosecutors Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal said federal authorities “intervened and provided resources to at least (one witness) so he could change his residence.”
There is no indication in court records that Davis instructs anyone to harm anyone or that anyone connected to the case is physically harmed.
One of Davis' defense attorneys, Robert Arroyo, told the Associated Press he saw no evidence that a witness was named or threatened.
Davis is originally from Compton, California. He claims that he was granted immunity from prosecution in 2008 by FBI agents and the Los Angeles Police Department who investigated both the murders of Shakur in Las Vegas and of rival rapper Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious BIG or Biggie Smalls, in March 1997 in Los Angeles.
Davis' lawyers argue that his descriptions of Shakur's murder were “for entertainment purposes and to make money.”