Prosecutors: Deny release in Shakur killing
LAS VEGAS (AP) — More than a decade of accounts by a former Los Angeles-area gang leader about orchestrating the killing of hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 are strong evidence to deny his release to house arrest ahead of his trial in June, prosecutors in Las Vegas said Thursday.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis “confessed over and over again that he is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo wrote in a court filing to a state court judge who on Tuesday will hear Davis’ request to be released on no more than $100,000 bail.
“Now, finally, facing the consequences of his actions, (Davis) asks this court to ignore his words,” DiGiacomo wrote. “Defendant was the shot-caller.”
DiGiacomo declined to comment after filing the bid to keep Davis in jail, which included more than 160 pages of written transcripts and a DVD with additional evidence.
Davis’ court-appointed attorneys, Robert Arroyo and Charles Cano, argued in a bail request filed Dec. 19 that their 60-year-old client is not getting proper medical attention in jail following a colon cancer diagnosis that they said is in remission. They said Davis poses no danger to the community and won’t flee to avoid trial.
“His diet and lack of exercise in the jail, given his age and medical history, is negatively impacting his health,” the attorneys wrote.
Cano declined immediate comment on Thursday’s court filing, saying the defense team was reviewing it.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge and has been ordered held without bail.
His court filing says his descriptions in recent years of orchestrating the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur were “done for entertainment purposes and to make money.”
DiGiacomo and prosecutor Binu Palal say that even if Davis didn’t pull the trigger, he is responsible.
Davis asserts he was given immunity in a 2008 agreement with the FBI and Los Angeles police who were investigating both the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, and rival rapper Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.
DiGiacomo and Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson say Davis incriminated himself during accounts to the joint federal and LAPD task force; to Las Vegas police in 2009; in an interview for a BET documentary in 2017; in his own tell-all book in 2019; and in more recent interviews.