What 500 pages of grand jury transcripts reveal about Tupac’s murder
Gang rivalry, a stolen medallion and an alleged million-dollar hit emerge in the grand jury transcripts of the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
The jury is officially beginning deliberations in Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis’ trial for the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Closing arguments took place in a Nevada court Monday, Aug. 31, exactly two weeks after the long-awaited proceedings began. In that time, a number of rare revelations surfaced about Davis, the late rap legend, their acquaintances and the impact of record label and gang rivalries on the hip-hop world in the ’90s.
“This case is drenched with circumstantial evidence even beyond Mr. Davis’ own statements,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said in his closing statement, calling the alleged crime an act of “gang retaliation and revenge.”
Davis is accused of providing the gun and instructing members of the South Side Compton Crips street gang, which he was allegedly a leader of, to shoot Shakur on the night of Sept. 7, 1996. Decades later, he faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.
He has pleaded not guilty and is the only person who has been charged in Shakur’s killing.
Here are the biggest bombshells from the historic trial:
What do prosecutors say led to Tupac Shakur’s killing?
At the time of his death, Shakur was signed to Death Row Records, which was cofounded by Marion “Suge” Knight and allegedly had ties to the Bloods gang. The label was embroiled in a bitter rivalry with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records, while tensions also existed between the Bloods and rival Crips..
In 1994, Shakur was shot five times at Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan while Combs and Bad Boy rapper Biggie Smalls, also known as The Notorious B.I.G., were upstairs.
In 1995, Combs and Knight allegedly got into a heated exchange after Knight publicly touted his label’s superiority over Bad Boy, former Death Row security chief Reggie Wright Jr. said during his 2023 grand jury testimony.
On the night Shakur was shot, he and Knight beat up Orlando Anderson, a Crips member who was also Davis’ nephew, inside a Las Vegas casino. Hours later, Shakur and Knight were struck by gunfire in a drive-by shooting. Shakur died six days later, while Knight survived. Knight is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for a fatal hit-and-run in 2015, survived.
In the prosecution’s opening statement, Palal told jurors, “Duane Davis made sure that the shooter was armed and ready to execute their revenge.”
Among the prosecution’s 24 witnesses were those who were following Shakur and Knight to Club 662 – a number that matches the letters MOB (Members of Bloods) – when gunshots rang out from a white Cadillac. Prosecutors believe Davis was in the front passenger seat and acted as the “shot caller.”
No witnesses were able to identify any suspects, and Las Vegas officer Greg Dale, who rode in the ambulance to the hospital with Shakur, said he refused to give any names.
“No, we’ll take care of it,” Dale testified were the late rapper’s final words.
Witnesses testified about connections to Diddy, Biggie Smalls’ death
Prosecutors said Knight employed members of the Bloods-affiliated Mob Piru as security for Death Row Records, while Combs hired Davis, whom Palal and several witnesses described as a “large-scale drug trafficker,” as “unofficial security” for him and his Bad Boy artists when they were on the West Coast.
Former Bloods member James McDonald and Death Row security chief Reggie Wright Jr. both testified this was true and said they were in Las Vegas the night Shakur was shot because of tensions with Bad Boy.
“I think Tupac inherited the beef between Suge Knight and [Combs],” McDonald said.
Former Crips member Denvonta Lee, who was incarcerated at the time of the shooting, further testified that he hung out with Diddy and Bad Boy associates in the ’90s when Davis was “known for hustling.”
Other witnesses were officials who investigated the killing of Smalls, who was signed to Bad Boy and killed in a drive-by shooting months after Shakur in what many speculate was an act of retaliation by the Bloods and Death Row. At one point, Davis was a suspect in that case as well, former LAPD detective Daryn Dupree testified.
Another Las Vegas detective also said the investigators for Shakur’s and Smalls’ cases talked to each other about a potential connection, and it was during an interview about Smalls that Davis allegedly confessed to his involvement with Shakur’s death.
During one interview, Davis alleged that Combs had offered $1 million to have Shakur and Knight killed. The claim echoed allegations made by Bad Boy co-founder Kirk Burrowes, who alleged in a 2003 lawsuit and another civil suit last year that Combs “orchestrated” the shooting.
Dupree testified that Davis said Combs gave the money to Eric “Von Zip” Martin to distribute, but Martin never gave it to Davis.
Combs has denied allegations of any involvement in Shakur’s death, and a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told USA TODAY Combs has never been a suspect.
Prosecutors pointed to Duane Davis’ past confessions
The prosecution highlighted Davis’ alleged confessions, which were played several times in the courtroom, throughout the trial. While two occurred during 2008 and 2009 police interviews conducted under a proffer, which is a private conversation from which police typically cannot use information against a suspect, prosecutors argued Davis’ statements are admissible because he later made the same confessions publicly.
In a 2019 memoir Davis co-wrote, 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,” he admitted to being in the car and providing the weapon used to shoot Shakur.
Four years later in 2023, Davis was officially indicted. “Had Mr. Davis never opened his mouth, never written the book, he would probably not have been prosecuted for the crime,” prosecutors said during a trial readiness hearing in June.
At the center of Palal’s closing argument was that “the one thing [Davis] never says from 1998 to 2023 is, ‘I wasn’t there.’” Clark County District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo added: “Mr. Davis is attempting to escape responsibility for a crime everybody knows he committed, even him, and he admits to it.”
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What is Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis’ defense?
The defense said all confessions Davis has made in the past are false confessions and claimed his versions of events do not match what was found at the scene and during the investigation.
“The evidence alone, just on this, would indicate to you that Mr. Davis is not telling you the truth, or in the alternative, he’s not telling you a fact,” Davis’ attorney Michael Sanft said during closing arguments.
Sanft made similar remarks during opening statements, focusing on the amount of time that passed between the killing and Davis’ arrest and questioning why charges didn’t come sooner. “What they are telling you, they’re representing to be a fact when it really is fiction,” he said of the prosecution.
Sanft further addressed the alleged 2008 and 2009 confessions, saying, “Keffe was never charged for any of what he said during that time period, and it’s because they knew he was full of crap. Otherwise they would have.”
Sanft also criticized the investigation, calling the work of now-retired Las Vegas detective Clifford Mogg, who took over the case in 2018, “biased, sloppy and incomplete.” Mogg was not called to testify during the trial.
The defense called a total of three witnesses – two former Las Vegas police officers and former detective Dan Long, who testified that his efforts to verify certain details of Davis’ 2009 confession were unsuccessful and corroborated previous testimony that the case file may not have been properly secured.
“Now, why is that important to you?” Sanft asked jurors in his closing argument. “It’s to determine the quality of the information that you’ve received in this case. Whether or not it’s all of it. Whether or not its integrity has been preserved.”
DiGiacomo pushed back in his rebuttal: “Mr. Sanft’s defense is he lied. That isn’t [Davis’] defense. You haven’t heard one recantation of his 2008 proffer or the various versions thereafter.”
Davis spoke directly to the judge in rare comments
While Davis did not testify for his own defense, he made a shocking move at the end of the first week of testimony when he spoke directly to the judge with a request. He said the prosecution was “endangering people’s lives” by giving out personal details like his address and his sister’s address, noting his home has been broken into and his wife’s car was vandalized.
“This stuff is wrong,” Davis said, “And it mostly this guy,” pointing to the prosecutor.
The judge replied that she has heard “there’s concerns both ways” and said she has admonished the prosecution to “talk to their witnesses and anyone they communicate [with] about these issues.”
The prosecutor then chimed in, saying, “I think he’s indicating he’s upset I’m prosecuting him for murder.” Davis, however, pushed back: “I’m not upset that you’re prosecuting. You’re endangering my family’s life.”