Ex-gang chief’s account of Tupac Shakur killing is fiction, protection lawyer in Vegas says
LAS VEGAS — The protection lawyer representing a former Los Angeles-area gang chief accused of killing hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas mentioned Tuesday his consumer’s accounts of the killing are fiction and prosecutors lack key proof to acquire a homicide conviction.
“He himself is giving totally different tales,” lawyer Carl Arnold advised reporters outdoors a courtroom following a short standing test along with his consumer, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, in entrance of a Nevada decide. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 4.
“We haven’t seen extra than simply his phrase,” Arnold mentioned of Davis’ police and media interviews since 2008 through which prosecutors say he incriminated himself in Shakur’s killing — together with Davis’ 2019 tell-all memoir of life main a road gang in Compton, California.
Prosecutor Binu Palal didn’t instantly remark outdoors court docket about Arnold’s statements. Clark County District Legal professional Steve Wolfson has mentioned proof towards Davis is powerful and it will likely be as much as a jury to determine the credibility of Davis’ accounts.
Arnold mentioned his consumer wished to earn cash along with his story, so he embellished or outright lied about his involvement within the car-to-car capturing that killed Shakur and wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight at a visitors sign close to the Las Vegas Strip in September 1996.
Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California jail for an unrelated deadly capturing within the Los Angeles space in 2015. He was not referred to as by prosecutors to testify earlier than the grand jury that indicted Davis final 12 months.
Arnold mentioned Davis won’t testify at trial, however he intends to name Knight to testify. The protection lawyer mentioned police and prosecutors lack proof that Davis was in Las Vegas on the time of Shakur’s killing, and don’t have the gun and automobile used in the course of the capturing as proof.
“We’ve seen video of all people else right here. The place’s video of him?” Arnold mentioned of Davis. “There’s simply nothing saying that he was right here.”
Davis has been jailed on $750,000 bail since his arrest in September. Arnold mentioned Tuesday that Davis has been unable to boost the ten% wanted to acquire a bond to be launched to deal with arrest.
Davis, 60, is initially from Compton. Police, prosecutors and Davis say he’s the one individual nonetheless alive who was within the automobile from which photographs have been fired.
Davis pleaded not responsible in November to first-degree homicide. If convicted, he might spend the remainder of his life in jail.
In his e-book, Davis wrote that he was promised immunity from prosecution when he advised authorities in Los Angeles what he knew in regards to the deadly shootings of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was often known as The Infamous B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.
Shakur had 5 No. 1 albums, was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted in 2017 into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame. He obtained a posthumous star final 12 months on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame.
