Could Tupac Shakur’s murder suspect escape prosecution? ‘Shot caller’ Duane Keith ‘Keffe D’ Davis made a deal with federal investigators 14 years ago to speak openly on topics, including rapper’s killing
- The details of the 2009 agreement between Davis and prosecutors is unknown
A deal struck 14 years ago between murder suspect Duane Keith Davis and Californian officials could jeopardize the prosecution investigating the death of Tupac Shakur, experts have warned.
Davis, known as ‘Keffe D’, is thought to have made a deal with federal investigators in California in 2009 that allowed him to speak openly on a number of topics – including what he knew about the hip-hop star’s death in Las Vegas in 1996.
Experts are now warning that prosecutors may not be able to use the murder suspect’s statements against him. If they attempted to, a legal dispute may break out in court, they warned.
The exact details of any agreement between Davis, 60, and federal investigators in 2009 are unknown, but officials may still be able to use his statements as an investigative tool as they continue to probe the case.
The self-described gangster made his first court appearance Wednesday, charged with Shakur’s murder. He was scheduled to be arraigned on the charge, but the hearing was cut short after he asked Clark County District Judge Tierra Jones to postpone the hearing while he retains counsel in Las Vegas.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis is led into the courtroom at the Regional Justice Center on Wednesday in Las Vegas
Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, on the evening of September 7, 1996. He was aged 25
Shakur was 25 when he was gunned down on the Vegas strip on 7 September 1996 while riding in a BMW
Veronica Galván, a Washington state judge and a former lecturer at the National Judicial College in Nevada, told NBC that if an agreement was made ‘there’s some expectation that another jurisdiction would give full faith and credit to what this jurisdiction has done.’
‘But I would also presume that that’s done with the knowledge of that other jurisdiction, that it was communicated with that other jurisdiction, ‘Hey, we’re getting these statements, this is what we intend to do, are you cool with that?’ And the feds normally do not make a proffer without bringing in the state’ in the case of another crime being committed, the judge added.
Whether the previous statements from Davis are inadmissible in the Nevada court room still remains to be seen. He had been invited to speak to investigators over both the Shakur and the 1997 Biggie Smalls killing.
Tom Pitaro, a Las Vegas criminal defense lawyer, also told NBC that he was confident prosecutors would not use any protected words from Davis.
He said the prosecutors dealing with the very high-profile Shakur murder case would be very experienced and ‘not rookies’.
Retired LA police robbery-homicide Detective Greg Kading said the deal may have prevented Davis’s words from becoming self-incriminating, but officials could still use the information as an investigative tool.
He stressed the deal did not mean immunity even if there was an agreement that anything self-incriminating would not be used against him.
Kading added that once Davis left that room, the agreement was over.
‘That agreement doesn’t apply to everything else in his life, as he erroneously believed,’ Kading said, ‘so he began to go out and boast about his involvement in the murder.’ The retired detective said this was not protected in the agreement.
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 60, appeared before a Nevada judge for the first time since his arrest on Friday
Davis, who wore a dark-blue jail uniform, was scheduled to be arraigned, but in an unexpected turn of events, the hearing was cut short after he asked District Judge Tierra Jones to reschedule so he can retain counsel in Las Vegas
September 7 marked the 27th anniversary of Tupac’s death, with the California Love rapper dying after being shot by a semi-automatic pistol
Pictured: Mug shot of Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, from Sept. 29, in Las Vegas. Davis was charged in the 1996 fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur (Las Vegas Police Department via AP)
As Davis made his appearance in court, Mopreme Shakur, the rapper’s brother remined at his home in Los Angeles, as he and his family said they were ‘trying to manage our expectations.’
‘Young Black men often deal with delayed justice because we’re often viewed as the criminals,’ he said. ‘So justice has been delayed for quite some time – in spite of all the eyes, all the attention, despite the celebrity of my brother.’
Former Tupac Shakur investigator says arrest of murder suspect Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis took so long because he gave them more evidence every time he spoke… READ MORE
Mopreme also told Sky News the murder had remained unsolved for almost three decades because of his brother’s race.
‘That’s just the nature of the beast, it’s just the nature of the beast in America. I’m realistic about that,’ he said.
It comes after Davis was arrested last Friday near his home in suburban Henderson. A few hours later, a grand jury indictment was unsealed in Clark County District Court charging him with murder. Davis denied a request from the AP for an interview from jail where he’s being held without bond.
Grand jurors also voted to add sentencing enhancements for the use of a deadly weapon and alleged gang activity. If Davis is convicted, that could add decades to his sentence. In Nevada, a person can be convicted of murder for helping another person commit the crime.
Los Angeles-based attorney Edi Faal told the AP in a brief phone call after the hearing that he is Davis’ longtime personal lawyer and is helping him find a Nevada attorney.
‘I have worked with him for more than two decades,’ Faal said. ‘But at this point I do not have a comment.’
Davis had been a long-known suspect in the case, and publicly admitted his role in the killing in interviews ahead of his 2019 tell-all memoir, ‘Compton Street Legend.’
‘There’s one thing that’s for sure when living that gangster lifestyle,’ he wrote. ‘You already know that the stuff you put out is going to come back; you never know how or when, but there’s never a doubt that it’s coming.’
American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur was killed in a drive by shooting which has been unsolved for 27 years
He was feuding at the time with rap rival Biggie Smalls (left) , also known as the Notorious B.I.G., who was fatally shot in March 1997
Mopreme Shakur, Tupac’s step-brother, called the arrest of Davis 27 years after the death of the rapper ‘bittersweet’
Davis’ own comments revived the police investigation that led to the indictment, police and prosecutors said. In mid-July, Las Vegas police raided Davis’ home, drawing renewed attention to one of hip-hop music’s most enduring mysteries.
Prosecutors allege Shakur’s killing stemmed from a rivalry and competition for dominance in a musical genre that, at the time, was dubbed ‘gangsta rap.’ It pitted East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect associated with rap music mogul Marion ‘Suge’ Knight against West Coast members of a Crips sect that Davis has said he led in Compton, California.
Tension escalated in Las Vegas the night of September 7, 1996, when a brawl broke out between Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, at the MGM Grand hotel-casino following a heavyweight championship boxing match won by Mike Tyson.
Knight and Shakur went to the fight, as did members of the South Side Crips, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said last week in court. ‘And (Knight) brought his entourage, which involved Mob Piru gang members.’
After the casino brawl, Knight drove a BMW with Shakur in the front passenger seat. The car was stopped at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up on the passenger side and gunfire erupted.
Davis has said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and handed a .40-caliber handgun to his nephew in the back seat, from which he said the shots were fired.
Shot multiple times, Shakur died a week later at age 25. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment but survived. Now 58, he is serving a 28-year prison sentence for running over and killing a Compton businessman outside a burger stand in January 2015.
Among the four people in the Cadillac that night, Davis is the only one who is still alive. Anderson died in a May 1998 shooting in Compton. Before his death, Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s death. The other backseat passenger, DeAndre ‘Big Dre’ or ‘Freaky’ Smith, died in 2004. The driver, Terrence ‘Bubble Up’ Brown, died in a 2015 shooting in Compton.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill, who oversees the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, has acknowledged criticism that his agency was slow to investigate Shakur’s killing.
‘That was simply not the case,’ McMahill said. He called the investigation ‘important to this police department.’
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