LAS VEGAS (Scripps News Las Vegas) — Duane Keith Davis, also known as “Keffe D,” appeared before a judge on Wednesday morning after his arrest in connection with the killing of rap legend Tupac Shakur.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis is led into the courtroom at the Regional Justice Center on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in Las Vegas. Davis has been charged in the 1996 fatal drive-by shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)
Davis’ hearing lasted approximately 30 seconds. He told Judge Tierra Jones he’d retained an attorney to represent him and his attorney had asked for a continuance of two weeks.
Jones ordered Davis to appear in court again on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 9 a.m.
Davis was originally scheduled to be arraigned on charges related to the fatal shooting of Shakur on the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996.
In the decades since Shakur was killed, speculation has swirled around who actually fired the fatal shots. In recent years, Davis has spoken publicly about Shakur’s killing — comments that police and prosecutors used to secure his indictment and arrest last week.
Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, his Death Row Records boss, were in a black BMW on Las Vegas Boulevard when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and shots were fired.
Davis, his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Deandrae “Dre” Smith and Terrence “T-Brown” Brown were the four people in the Cadillac.
For many years after the shooting, it was widely believed that Anderson — who died in an unrelated shooting in 1998 — fired the shots that killed Shakur.
FILE – Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. Authorities in Nevada confirmed Tuesday, July 18, 2023, that they served a search warrant this week in connection with the long-unsolved killing of the late rapper Shakur. (AP Photo/Frank Wiese, File)
In recent testimony before a Clark County grand jury, witnesses told the jury it was actually Dre Smith who fired the gun. Smith is also deceased.
Jurors also heard testimony that Davis was a “shot-caller” in the South Side Crips. Witnesses told the jury no shots would have been fired unless Davis gave the OK, given his position of authority over the other men.
Under Nevada law, those who aid in a crime can still be prosecuted for it.
