Photo Credit: Julian Paefgen
Attorneys for Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the man accused of killing Tupac Shakur in 1996, are pushing to suppress evidence obtained in an allegedly “unlawful” search.
Attorneys representing the man accused of killing rap legend Tupac Shakur in 1996 have filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained in what they claim was an unlawful search. The motion was filed on behalf of their client, Duane “Keefe D” Davis, who was charged in the drive-by shooting off the Las Vegas Strip that led to the rapper’s death nearly 30 years ago.
Robert Draskovich and William Brown, Davis’ attorneys, argue that a judge relied on a “misleading portrait” of their client as a dangerous drug dealer in order to grant a nighttime search warrant. Search warrants must typically be issued during the day, and nighttime search warrants should only be granted in “exceptional circumstances,” such as a risk that evidence will disappear by morning.
But Davis’ attorneys say their client was an ex-gang leader from Southern California who had left the narcotics trade in 2008. The 60-year-old had been doing inspection work for oil refineries for years, according to his attorneys, and had been living with his wife in Henderson—a city just outside Las Vegas—for nine years at the time the warrant was issued.
“The court wasn’t told any of this,” Davis’ attorneys write. “As a result, the court authorized a nighttime search based on a portrait of Davis that bore little resemblance to reality—a clearly erroneous factual determination.”
At the time of the search, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said executing the warrant at night would allow officers to secure the residence in the event that Davis attempted to barricade himself inside. He was arrested in September 2023, and pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
Now, his attorneys assert that Davis’ arrest stems from “false public statements” he had made in which he claimed to be present in the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired that ultimately killed Tupac. According to his attorneys, Davis has never offered details that could firmly corroborate his presence in the car, but that he stood to benefit from saying he was present. By telling the story in a proffer agreement (commonly known as a “Queen for a Day” agreement), Davis avoided drug charges and has made money by repeating it in documentaries, as well as in his 2019 book.
“Shakur’s murder was essentially the entertainment world’s JFK assassination—endlessly dissected, mythologized, monetized—so it’s not hard to see why someone in Davis’ position might falsely place himself at the center of it all for personal gain,” wrote Davis’ attorneys.
Davis and his attorneys petitioned to have his murder charges dismissed in the Nevada Supreme Court, but the motion was denied in November.
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