EX-GANGSTER Duane Keefe D Davis is allegedly giving himself a fighting chance of walking away a free man – despite confessing to the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Keefe‘s refusal to give evidence about his links to Tupac’s death places huge pressure on prosecutors, according to an expert.
GettyTupac Shakur’s death has remained a high-profile cold case for almost 30 years[/caption]
APKeefe D is led into the courtroom during a status hearing at the Regional Justice Center last month in Las Vegas[/caption]
And Keefe staying silent at trial – despite confessing to police and the media about his alleged key role in the crime – could sway a jury and result in him getting off.
That is the insight of a top US lawyer, who says Keefe’s multiple admissions to planning Tupac’s 1996 shooting may not be enough to send him to jail.
Attorney Jamie Wright spoke exclusively to The U.S. Sun as Keefe is set to stand trial after pleading not guilty in November 2023.
Wright said, “The prosecution has the burden of proof, and it has to be beyond a reasonable doubt, right?
“If there’s any kind of doubt, then at that point, a jury can say it is not guilty, or maybe they’re even hung.
“The benefit is by not speaking sometimes, juries, they form opinions about you based on what you say or how you present it because they’re looking at so many things.
“They’re not just listening to the evidence, but they’re also watching the person.
“By invoking his right to remain silent, he solely places the burden on the prosecution to say, ‘We have enough evidence to make this beyond a reasonable doubt,’ which is almost, it’s not a hundred percent, but it’s way beyond 50.
“So it places the burden on the prosecution. They have a lot more work to do if he decides, ‘I’m not going to say anything at all.’”
‘MANY CONFESSIONS’
Keefe gave interviews to police in 2008 and 2009 explaining his intimate knowledge of the hit and detailing the alleged moment of the kill by his nephew, Orlando Anderson.
He outlines similar criminality in his memoir Compton Street Legend and has also told media outlets about his alleged involvement.
Despite his comments, he now claims he “made it all up for money and fame,” although this may not stand up in court.
Wright says the jury may find him guilty after watching videos of his admissions and hearing tapes of his police confessions – which were allegedly given as a part of an immunity deal.
Asked whether she thinks he will be found guilty, she added, “I would say I’m leaning on the side of the prosecution on this particular one.
“I just think the absence of a statement could yell guilty.
“But it all depends. I would have to watch his demeanor. I would have to watch how he presents himself while he’s sitting there during the trial. I’d have to know who the prosecutors are.”
Why it’s taken so long for justice in the Tupac Shakur case
By The Sun’s Senior Reporter Emma Parry, who has been reporting on the Tupac murder for the past 10 years.
TUPAC fans have been waiting for justice for the iconic rapper for almost 28 years.
Finally in September 2023 there appeared to be progress with the arrest of Duane “Keefe D” Davis – a former Southside Crip gangster from Compton, LA – who had been telling the world for years that he and his fellow “gang soldiers” were responsible for the hit.
I’ve been reporting on the case for several years and it always appeared pretty cut and dry…Keefe had spent the past decade gaining notoriety by boasting about his alleged involvement in the shooting – now he was finally getting what he deserves. But despite Keefe running his mouth for years, I now believe a guilty verdict in November’s trial is far from guaranteed.
Keefe describes in great detail in his memoir Compton Street Legend what went down the night Pac was shot, extracts from which The U.S. Sun has published.
He claimed that he was offered a million dollars by rapper Diddy to “handle” Tupac and Suge Knight and when he and his Crip gangsters came across the pair driving near the Strip in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, Keefe alleged he passed the gun to his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who took the shot. Keefe said if Pac had been on his side: “I would have blast”.
Keefe repeated the claims multiple times over the years, on YouTube channels, documentaries, and even in taped confessions to police, when he believed he could not be prosecuted. In one confession to the LAPD, Keefe appeared completely remorseless telling detectives: “We didn’t give a f**k…The ambulance [for Tupac] was parked right here next to us. That s**t was as funny as a motherf**ker.”
The Sun has been publishing stories about Keefe’s self confessed involvement in the crime since 2018.
I sent many links to his confessions to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, asking them why this man had not been arrested yet. They would thank me for the info but say that they could not comment because the case was still active. From the outside, it looked like no action was being taken at all.
We spoke to former detectives involved in the case and documentary makers who all felt utterly frustrated at the lack of progress in the case. We even published a plea from former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who had probed the murders, urging Las Vegas cops to arrest Keefe, back in 2020.
For years, the case appeared to have been forgotten and ignored, to be left forever unsolved.
But finally, in the summer of 2023, we got word from our sources that there had been a huge development in the case. A secret grand jury was due to be held on whether or not Keefe should be indicted. I was dubious at first but around the same time a house in Henderson, Nevada, linked to Keefe, was raided in July as part of the Tupac investigation.
Things were heating up.
Later that summer, behind closed doors, jurors listened to hours of testimony from former cops, detectives, and coroners involved in the Tupac case and gangsters and associates of Keefe’s and Pac’s from back in the day. They were shown graphic photos of Tupac’s bullet-ridden body. After days of evidence, they decided there was enough evidence to prosecute Keefe.
Once the secret documents were released I poured over the transcripts. While interesting, many of the witnesses were telling stories they’d heard second-hand. None of the prosecution witnesses had a clear look at who shot Pac. One witness Devonta Lee claimed another gangster called Big Dre took the shot – not Orlando. Maybe things weren’t as clear-cut as I first thought.
Keefe was then arrested on September 30, 2023 at his home. Bodycam footage we obtained from the scene showed Keefe bragging to cops even as he was handcuffed in the back of a police car – telling officers he was involved in the “biggest case in Las Vegas history”.
Following Keefe’s multiple appearances in court, he seems to have lost much of that bravado and now cuts a sad, lonely figure.
Suffering from various health problems as a result of cancer, he’s struggling to cope with the brutalities of jail life and can’t get together enough money to afford his bail. He feels some of his old Southside Crip associates – men he handed wads of cash to in his glory days, have just abandoned him.
Keefe is now desperate to get out of jail, and his defense stems is leaning on his claim that he completely made up his involvement in the Tupac murder for fame and money. He saw other people cashing in on the murder so he thought he would too. He reckons his confessions to police were all lies – he made it up because he was under a plea deal and thought it would help him beat his other charges.
And, according to his lawyer Carl Arnold, he wasn’t even in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. Arnold remains convinced he will see his client walk free and their secret weapon could be former Death Row Records boss Suge.
As the only other person still alive from either car, Suge, currently in prison for a fatal hit and run, would be a key witness. Suge is the only person still alive who knows what went down – he saw the shooter. While he’s said he won’t testify at the November trial, Suge has claimed in a TMZ interview from prison that Orlando was not the shooter, which again throws into doubt Keefe’s version of events.
Keefe and his lawyer are hoping they might be able to change his mind and persuade him to testify for the defense. And Suge holds the power to blow the prosecution’s case apart.
And if Keefe walks free, will there ever be justice for Pac?
“Are they the star prosecutors in that office? Are they [lawyers] who have been trying cases for 30 years?” she asked.
“Just because you’re a prosecutor doesn’t mean that you’re a good trial lawyer.”
Wright makes it clear that multiple confessions are often still not enough in criminal trials to convict someone.
“When jurors are brought into a courtroom, they’re given instructions at the beginning of the trial, and then once they go to deliberate, they’re given a whole other set of instructions, which is, you can’t consider any outside evidence,” she said.
“You’re only supposed to consider what’s been presented to you.
“You’re not supposed to consult any party resources. You’re not supposed to contact anybody in this case. Could they be sequestered? Possibly.
“If they’re sequestered, then they’re not looking at any television, they’re not looking at any media.
The benefit is by not speaking sometimes [in a trial], juries, they form opinions about you based on what you say or how you present it because they’re looking at so many things.
Jamie Wright
“So the eyes of us watching it on the media versus somebody who’s actually in the room deliberating is a whole set of different circumstances because they’ve been given instructions that are different.”
Meanwhile, Keefe plans to stop his recorded boasts – of hunting down the rapper in Las Vegas – from ever being heard in his upcoming trial later this year.
He admitted to being the ringleader of a group of South Side Crips, who hunted Tupac after he allegedly beat up Keefe’s nephew Anderson in September 1996.
Keefe’s lawyer, Carl Arnold, is optimistic that a 2009 taped interview with Metro Police will not feature in the trial, claiming it is legally problematic and “worthless” as evidence.
Jamie WrightAttorney Jamie Wright is not convinced Keefe will be found guilty at his trial this year[/caption]
GettyA booking photo of Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis shown during a news conference in Las Vegas in 2023[/caption]
Tupac Shakur/CenturyTupac was 25 when he was killed during a drive-by shooting while he was at a red light[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
