Arraignment delayed again for Tupac Shakur murder suspect Duane Davis
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on October 19, 2023
(LAS VEGAS) — The arraignment for Duane “Keffe D” Davis was delayed for a second time on Thursday as the suspect charged with murder in connection with the 1996 drive-by killing of rapper Tupac Shakur has yet to find a lawyer to represent him.
Davis, 60, was indicted by a Clark County grand jury on one count of open murder with use of a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement last month, nearly 30 years after Tupac’s death. He has been detained since being arrested near his Las Vegas-area home on Sept. 29.
Davis appeared in Clark County Court Thursday with a graying beard and in a blue jail jumpsuit and shackles. He stood as the judge started and ended the hearing in a matter of seconds as the lawyer representing him said he could not assert that he would be his lawyer and that they needed two more weeks to figure it out.
Davis first appeared in court earlier this month, when his arraignment was postponed after he told the judge his lawyer, who was not present, needed a continuance of two weeks.
Shakur died on Sept. 7, 1996, at the age of 25, six days after being shot while in a car near the Las Vegas Strip. A white Cadillac pulled up alongside the car near the Strip and “immediately began shooting,” police said.
The shooting occurred hours after a brawl at the MGM Grand between members and affiliates of two rival Compton, California, gangs — Mob Piru Bloods and the South Side Compton Crips — police said.
Police said Davis — who has admitted publicly to being in the Cadillac at the time of the shooting — was the Crips’ “shot caller.” He is accused of orchestrating the “retaliatory shooting” that killed Shakur.
Though Davis may not have fired the gun on Shakur himself, his say-so would have authorized the trigger pull, authorities have said. They also accused Davis of providing the gun used in the shooting.
Davis is the only living suspect in the homicide, according to police.
The case remained cold for decades until “reinvigorated” in 2018 when new information came to light — “specifically, Duane Davis’ own admissions to his involvement in this homicide investigation that he provided to numerous different media outlets,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Lt. Jason Johansson told reporters last month.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
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