In Las Vegas, an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, faced another setback on Tuesday as Judge Carli Kierny denied his request for bail ahead of his murder trial for the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. The judge expressed concerns about a possible cover-up regarding the source of the funds proposed for his bond.
Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, had presented additional records intended to prove the legitimacy of the $750,000 bail, asserting that it was underwritten by music record executive Cash “Wack 100” Jones, who purportedly obtained the money legally. However, Judge Kierny remained unpersuaded, citing the suspicious nature of two identical letters submitted as evidence. One was signed by an individual with no affiliation to the company, while the other contained a misspelled name and a return address linked to a doctor’s office.
“I have a sense that things are trying to be covered up,” Kierny remarked during the hearing.
The proceedings took a contentious turn when Arnold revealed that the bail bond agent used by Davis had provided the entertainment company with instructions on what the letters should say and could therefore testify regarding their authenticity. This prompted a fierce rebuttal from prosecutor Binu Palal, who suggested that submitting a false document could constitute a felony offense.
“The state takes that very seriously,” Palal asserted. “Be advised that it will not go uninvestigated.”
Both the defense and prosecution refrained from further comments.
Since his arrest in September 2023, Davis has been attempting to secure his release. Notably, he is the sole individual ever charged in connection with one of hip-hop’s most legendary unsolved cases. Davis has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder charges.
Further complicating his situation, Judge Kierny postponed the commencement of his trial from November 4 to March 17. This isn’t the first time Davis’s efforts to secure bail have been thwarted. Previously, Kierny had rejected a proposal for Jones to post $112,500 for Davis’ house arrest, voicing concerns about a potential profit motive through the sale of Davis’ life story, which could infringe upon Nevada’s “slayer statute” that prevents convicts from monetizing their crimes.
Jones, who has managed prominent artists such as Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, testified in June, expressing his desire to help Davis due to his battle with cancer and his long-standing influence in the community, particularly in urban areas.
In past interviews and a revealing 2019 memoir, Davis admitted he is the last surviving suspect in Shakur’s fatal shooting, which occurred nearly 28 years ago near the Las Vegas Strip. Authorities believe the shooting was part of a violent rivalry between East Coast and West Coast factions of the Bloods and Crips gangs, fighting for supremacy in the “gangsta rap” genre of that era.