The former gang leader charged with murder in connection with the killing of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur by a 27-year-old appeared again in a Las Vegas court on Thursday.
• Also read: Murder of Tupac: His brother denounces racism in connection with the investigation
• Also read: Ex-gang leader charged in connection with rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder
Duane Davis, known as “Keefe D,” 60, was charged last month as part of the murder investigation, although he was not the one who held the gun during the Wild City crime on Sept. 7, 1996.
Thursday’s hearing was to be devoted to the arraignment of the suspect, who would have had to plead guilty or not guilty. But his lawyer, Ross Goodman, called for a dismissal on the grounds that he had not been properly hired by his client.
“I give you two weeks, but it has to move forward in two weeks,” said Judge Tierra Jones.
The former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, a Los Angeles gang, has long admitted that he was in the white Cadillac from which the four bullets were fired that killed Tupac Shakur at age 25.
Archive photo
He bragged about being on the ground as “commander” of the operation to overthrow Tupac and Death Row Records label boss Marion Knight, known as Suge, in retaliation for an attack on his nephew.
However, he argued that the shots were fired from the rear of the vehicle while he was in the front.
However, under Nevada law, anyone who facilitates and participates in a murder can be charged with that murder, just as the driver of a vehicle used by bank robbers can be charged with robbery.
Tupac Shakur, known for the hits “Dear Mama,” “California Love” and “Changes,” was a huge star in the rap world at the time of his death.
He depended on Death Row Records, a label then associated with the Los Angeles gang Mob Piru, which had long been at war with Duane Davis’ South Side Compton Crips.
Prosecutors said last month that prosecutors had long suspected he was involved in the murder but did not have enough evidence to charge him. Things began to unravel when Davis, who according to media reports was the only person still alive in the Cadillac that fateful day, published an autobiography and discussed the murder on television.