Tupac's Convicted Killer Denies Guilt Before Sentencing
Tupac's Convicted Killer Denies Guilt Before Sentencing
The News
Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the former Crips boss convicted of orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur, says he is innocent and expects to walk out on appeal.
A Las Vegas jury found Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder on Aug. 31 after just over two hours of deliberation. Judge Carli Kierny sentences him Oct. 13, and he faces the rest of his life in Nevada prison.
In his first interview since the verdict, given from the Clark County Detention Center to The Hollywood Reporter, Davis said he was not in Las Vegas the night Shakur was shot. "We didn't do that shit, dog," he said. He told TMZ he wasn't anywhere near the murder scene.
Timeline
Shakur is shot four times while riding in the BMW of Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight at an intersection just off the Las Vegas Strip. He dies at 25.
Davis goes into federal custody, according to his own account of that period.
Davis boasts about the killing in a television docuseries, on pay-to-play YouTube podcasts and in his autobiography, Compton Street Legend. He now says those accounts were largely fabricated to dodge indictment on other charges and to make money.
A jury at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas convicts Davis of first-degree murder after roughly two hours of deliberation. He does not testify; he says his lawyer warned that taking the stand would hurt his appeal.
The Hollywood Reporter publishes its jailhouse interview, conducted by video terminal in 25-minute visitation slots. TMZ and the Daily Mail carry his innocence claim the same day.
Sentencing before Judge Carli Kierny.
Reactions
Davis was defiant rather than remorseful. "Shit, I ain't worried. I'm getting out on an appeal," he told The Hollywood Reporter, saying the filing went in before the trial even started. "They violated my civil rights!"
He also insisted on his character: "I'm a good man. I'm a good person," and, per THR's headline quote, "I'm not no f***ing killer."
Davis blamed witness Reggie Wright Jr., saying Wright "lied on the stand" by placing him at the Soul Train Awards with a gun. THR noted that Wright testified Davis was at the awards but identified someone else as the man with the gun.
Asked what he would say to Shakur's sister Sekyiwa and other relatives who sat across the aisle at trial, Davis said he had nothing to say to them and complained about how they looked at him.
He said he asked Sean "Diddy" Combs and Dr. Dre to help pay his legal bills and could not reach either. He also disavowed the most explosive claim tied to his earlier tellings: "Puff never said he wanted a hit out on [Shakur and Knight] for a million dollars. My lawyer made that shit up."
What's Next
Sentencing is set for Oct. 13 in Las Vegas, where Davis could receive a term that keeps him behind bars for life.
Davis says an appeal is already filed and rests on alleged civil rights violations. No court has ruled on it.
More
What the evidence does and doesn't show
The case against Davis leaned heavily on his own repeated public boasts, since prosecutors did not accuse him of pulling the trigger — only of orchestrating the hit. THR reported that there are no receipts, phone records or eyewitness accounts confirming Davis was in Las Vegas that night, and no alibi placing him anywhere else either.
THR also cautioned about its own interview: Davis could not hear the questions over the jail's video system and had to read them off the screen, so some answers are paraphrased and imprecise.
Poll
Should Davis get life in prison at his Oct. 13 sentencing?
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