THE Compton gangbanger accused of orchestrating the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur has been hit with a new charge after allegedly being involved in a fight with another inmate.
Surveillance footage from inside Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas showed murder suspect Duane “Keefe D” Davis, 61, on the floor, allegedly grappling with a shirtless inmate.
LVMPD/KLASAn image showed an inmate in a fighting stance, confronting Tupac murder suspect Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis (blue)[/caption]
Duane Davis appeared in Clark County District Court on January 21 for a hearing on on a motion to dismiss all charges in his murder caseGetty Images – Getty
Davis is seen on the ground, grappling with another inmateLVMPD/KLAS
In one still image, Davis, wearing a dark blue prison jumpsuit, is pictured standing near a correction officer as another inmate appears to confront him in a fighting stance.
A second image showed both Davis and the inmate wrestling on the floor and throwing closed fists, according to court documents obtained by CBS affiliate KLAS-TV.
Davis allegedly had the other inmate in a headlock.
A correction officer pepper sprayed both men until they were separated, the outlet reported citing court documents.
After the confrontation, Davis reportedly told officers he “was just standing his ground.”
Davis was charged on Sunday with battery by a prisoner for the incident.
The other inmate was only identified as a 53-year-old who is also in custody on a murder charge, according to KLAS-TV.
The number assigned to the incident showed the fight occurred on January 23, the outlet reported.
Davis, who is being held without bail since his arrest in September 2023, was ordered to stand trial after a Las Vegas judge upheld the murder charge against him during a court hearing on January 21.
The self-confessed former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him, claiming he is being unfairly prosecuted.
In his motion, Davis claimed he had a federal government immunity deal over his repeated admission to orchestrating the killing of Tupac on September 13, 1996.
However, Judge Carli Kierny refuted Davis’ claims, saying there is no evidence of such a deal between the suspect and federal authorities.
Right now, [Davis] is seething. He really believed that court would rule in his favor.
A source close to Duane Davis told The U.S. Sun after his January 21 hearing.
Instead, the judge agreed with prosecutors that Davis received warnings from his defense team and a Las Vegas Metro Police officer that confessing to the crime during an interview carried no legal protection.
Judge Kierny said Davis did not help his cause by revealing “additional information on own admission” in several media interviews, reveling in the fame and money, which she described as “pecuniary gain.”
Defense attorney Carl Arnold fought to have Davis released, arguing his client could not receive a fair trial given the Southside Crips members, who were in the car and fired the fatal shots at Tupac, are all dead.
“The law is clear – the state cannot proceed solely based on his admissions and if they don’t have any evidence to corroborate those admissions the case should be dismissed,” Arnold argued.
“But for Mr. Davis speaking and giving those statements, the state does not have a case.
“Without four co-conspirators and witnesses, Eric Martin, Deandre Smith, Terence Brown, and Orlando Anderson, being alive, my client is sufficiently prejudiced beyond repair.”
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?
The attorney claimed that a 2009 interview given by his client to a Las Vegas Metro Police detective, identified by the surname “Long” in a court document, was “confidential and covered, and you cannot be charged on it.”
He added that Davis’ comments confessing to his role in the murder during an interview with a Los Angeles gang task force in 2008 were protected under an immunity deal.
Despite his arguments, Judge Kierny ruled that Davis could stand trial, which is scheduled to begin March 17.
Davis was left seething after the hearing and has disclosed to friends he worries about his safety behind bars.
“Right now, he is seething. He really believed that court would rule in his favor,” a source close to Davis told The U.S. Sun after the January 21 hearing.
“He really had built his hopes up that the law was on his side and his lawyer was right.”
Davis’ son, Duane Davis Jr., previously told The U.S. Sun his father’s life is in danger in prison.
“My dad would be safer out there, man,” the younger Davis told The U.S. Sun last September.
“This ain’t right. They violate people’s rights here,” he added about his father’s repeated bail denial.
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