LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Lawyers for the man accused of ordering the murder of Tupac Shakur have asked a judge to release him from jail pending trial, adding their client’s statements about the killing were for “entertainment purposes,” according to documents the 8 News Now Investigators reviewed Monday.
In a new court filing, lawyers for Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, have asked a judge to release their client on his own recognizance with an ankle bracelet or set bail no higher than $100,000, adding “he is not a threat to the community,” “not a flight risk” and jail life is affecting his health, documents said.
In September, a Clark County grand jury indicted Davis on a charge of murder with the use of a deadly weapon in the 1996 slaying of Shakur. Last month, Davis pleaded not guilty. Judge Tierra Jones denied setting bail due to the murder charge.
Davis, who was in remission from colon cancer, wrote a book and did several interviews where he said he was in the car with the person who shot Shakur and record executive Suge Knight near the Las Vegas Strip in September 1996. Shakur died six days later from his injuries.
The shooting on Sept. 7, 1996, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a block off the Las Vegas Strip, followed a fight earlier in the night. In the hours before the murder, Shakur’s group reportedly attacked Orlando Anderson, a member of a rival gang and Davis’ nephew. Davis, Anderson and two other men were in the shooter’s car, Davis has publicly claimed, and prosecutors said.
Davis made several public statements about the night of the shooting, including in TV interviews and in a 2019 book 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.”
Davis’ attorneys said prosecutors presented the grand jury with “an astounding amount of hearsay,” and questioned witnesses’ credibility, documents said. Specifically, the lawyers said prosecutors “did not introduce any independent evidence connecting Duane Davis to the shooting” other than what was in Davis’ book.
“Tupac made an erratic move and began to reach down beneath his seat,” Davis writes in the book. “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.”
window.loadAnvato({“mcp”:”LIN”,”width”:”100%”,”height”:”100%”,”video”:”9051493″,”autoplay”:false,”expect_preroll”:true,”shareLink”:”https://newsnationnow.com”,”pInstance”:”p1″,”plugins”:{“comscore”:{“clientId”:”6036439″,”c3″:”newsnationnow.com”,”version”:”5.2.0″,”useDerivedMetadata”:true,”mapping”:{“c3″:”newsnationnow.com”,”ns_st_st”:”newsnation”,”ns_st_pu”:”Nexstar”,”ns_st_ge”:”News,News,I-Team,Video”,”c4″:”vod”}},”dfp”:{“adTagUrl”:”https://813c5.v.fwmrm.net/ad/g/1?nw=529349&prof=529349%3Anewsnation_web&resp=vmap1&crtp=vast3ap&flag=+sltp+slcb+exvt+aeti+amcb+play+emcr+fbad&sfid=17963904&afid=387621033&metr=47&caid=9051493&vprn=38789&pvrn=55637&csid=NewsNation_entertainment;_fw_site_page=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsnationnow.com%2Fentertainment-news%2Ffeed&primary=&pers_cid=0&ad_manager_nonce=%5BGOOGLE_INSTREAM_VIDEO_NONCE%5D&hlmeta=entertainment%2520news”,”isFreewheel”:true},”nielsen”:{“apid”:”P41DFFBE3-BFE6-4E87-A645-785182813A6E”,”sfcode”:”dcr”,”type”:”dcr”,”apn”:”Anvato”,”environment”:”production”,”useDerivedMetadata”:true,”mapping”:{“adloadtype”:2,”adModel”:2}},”segmentCustom”:{“script”:”https://segment.psg.nexstardigital.net/anvato.js”,”writeKey”:”ombTFgzuMyzShBegBMRNK25zHRqm1YzP”,”pluginsLoadingTimeout”:12},”newsNationPlugin”:{“script”:”https://www.newsnationnow.com/wp-content/themes/newsnation/client/build/js/player.bundle.min.js?ver=5ae362a9f270962a23cd”,”cssFile”:”https://www.newsnationnow.com/wp-content/themes/newsnation/client/build/css/player.min.css?ver=e92ed820e7869b0c7e93″}},”accessKey”:”GNLYj4WPEPgKWUvG6mTVNFejokMyVq3x”,”token”:”eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ2aWQiOiI5MDUxNDkzIiwiaXNzIjoiR05MWWo0V1BFUGdLV1V2RzZtVFZORmVqb2tNeVZxM3giLCJleHAiOjE3MDMwNTQwNDN9.TVGm__AuUCUsk2aZhWwETaT5Krd3e8ZNdgiROxHbaAA”,”expectPrerollTimeout”:8,”nxs”:{“mp4Url”:”https://tkx.mp.lura.live/rest/v2/mcp/video/9051493?anvack=8v9BEynWOOrPBhLKjEukPUGEoB8QXKlR&token=%7E5yi8cJcObkS%2BPyxRZFimWrloGseZvo70MQ%3D%3D”,”enableFloatingPlayer”:true},”disableMutedAutoplay”:false,”recommendations”:false,”expectPreroll”:true,”titleVisible”:true,”pauseOnClick”:true,”trackTimePeriod”:60,”isPermutiveEnabled”:true,”isMinimizedEnabled”:false,”share”:false,”pauseOnTabInactive”:false,”isLeadMedia”:false});
In their filing, Davis’ lawyers write the book was “allegedly” written by Davis and another man.
“Excerpts from the book ‘Compton Street Legend’ that were read into the grand jury record, as well as the YouTube clips admitted as exhibits, seemingly connect Duane to the shooting of Shakur. However, the value of these items of evidence is questionable,” the filing said.
“When we pulled up, I was in the front seat,” Davis said in a 2018 BET interview. “Happen to see my friend, Suge.”
“You said the shots came from the back,” the interviewer asks Davis in the BET video. “Who shot Tupac?”
window.loadAnvato({“mcp”:”LIN”,”width”:”100%”,”height”:”100%”,”video”:”9047872″,”autoplay”:false,”expect_preroll”:true,”shareLink”:”https://newsnationnow.com”,”pInstance”:”p2″,”plugins”:{“comscore”:{“clientId”:”6036439″,”c3″:”newsnationnow.com”,”version”:”5.2.0″,”useDerivedMetadata”:true,”mapping”:{“c3″:”newsnationnow.com”,”ns_st_st”:”newsnation”,”ns_st_pu”:”Nexstar”,”ns_st_ge”:”About Us”,”c4″:”vod”}},”dfp”:{“adTagUrl”:”https://813c5.v.fwmrm.net/ad/g/1?nw=529349&prof=529349%3Anewsnation_web&resp=vmap1&crtp=vast3ap&flag=+sltp+slcb+exvt+aeti+amcb+play+emcr+fbad&sfid=17963904&afid=387621033&metr=47&caid=9047872&vprn=34965&pvrn=49788&csid=NewsNation_entertainment;_fw_site_page=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsnationnow.com%2Fentertainment-news%2Ffeed&primary=&pers_cid=0&ad_manager_nonce=%5BGOOGLE_INSTREAM_VIDEO_NONCE%5D&hlmeta=entertainment%2520news”,”isFreewheel”:true},”nielsen”:{“apid”:”P41DFFBE3-BFE6-4E87-A645-785182813A6E”,”sfcode”:”dcr”,”type”:”dcr”,”apn”:”Anvato”,”environment”:”production”,”useDerivedMetadata”:true,”mapping”:{“adloadtype”:2,”adModel”:2}},”segmentCustom”:{“script”:”https://segment.psg.nexstardigital.net/anvato.js”,”writeKey”:”ombTFgzuMyzShBegBMRNK25zHRqm1YzP”,”pluginsLoadingTimeout”:12},”newsNationPlugin”:{“script”:”https://www.newsnationnow.com/wp-content/themes/newsnation/client/build/js/player.bundle.min.js?ver=5ae362a9f270962a23cd”,”cssFile”:”https://www.newsnationnow.com/wp-content/themes/newsnation/client/build/css/player.min.css?ver=e92ed820e7869b0c7e93″}},”accessKey”:”GNLYj4WPEPgKWUvG6mTVNFejokMyVq3x”,”token”:”eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ2aWQiOiI5MDQ3ODcyIiwiaXNzIjoiR05MWWo0V1BFUGdLV1V2RzZtVFZORmVqb2tNeVZxM3giLCJleHAiOjE3MDMwNTQwNDN9.7P4YnvXcdWkhzIwIKRbsRgvE7yzwq-Jj0Y09ZF_jTfs”,”expectPrerollTimeout”:8,”nxs”:{“mp4Url”:”https://tkx.mp.lura.live/rest/v2/mcp/video/9047872?anvack=8v9BEynWOOrPBhLKjEukPUGEoB8QXKlR&token=%7E5yi9dpsAb0S%2BPyxUY16rXLloGseZvo70MQ%3D%3D”,”enableFloatingPlayer”:true},”disableMutedAutoplay”:false,”recommendations”:false,”expectPreroll”:true,”titleVisible”:true,”pauseOnClick”:true,”trackTimePeriod”:60,”isPermutiveEnabled”:true,”isMinimizedEnabled”:false,”share”:false,”pauseOnTabInactive”:false,”isLeadMedia”:false});
“Going to keep it for the code of the streets,” Davis said. “It just came from the backseat, bro.”
As part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into the death of The Notorious B.I.G., officials offered Davis a proffer, which Davis believed gave him immunity in the Las Vegas case.
“The book and video interviews were produced for a financial benefit under the belief that Duane had immunity,” Davis’ lawyers write. “Duane was paid a substantial amount of money to give his interviews on YouTube.”
The lawyers also add: “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.”
Davis’ lawyers also said in a TMZ interview with Knight after Davis’ arrest, Knight said he did not believe Davis nor Anderson were involved, documents said.
A hearing was scheduled for Jan. 2. Prosecutors previously said they would not seek the death penalty should a jury find Davis guilty.
