Jurors in a Las Vegas court have heard an audio recording of Duane Davis, aka ‘Keffe D’, who is on trial for the murder of US rapper Tupac Shakur, telling detectives that his late nephew Orlando Anderson pulled the trigger.
The hip-hop superstar was shot four times while stopped at a red light in a car with record company executive Suge Knight on the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996. Shakur later succumbed to his wounds.
A tape dated 2008 was presented in Clark County District Court on Thursday and features detectives telling Davis that their discussion is confidential, and that “nothing you say today can be used against you.” The former senior figure in the South Side Compton Crips street gang is heard saying that he was in the car, together with Anderson and two other men, when it pulled up alongside Knight’s vehicle, in which Shakur was riding.
“If we would have been on my side, I would have blasted,” Davis tells the detectives, explaining that the target was, however, on the other side.
According to the tape, Davis passed his gun to Deandre ‘Big Dre’ Smith, who refused to shoot. Then Anderson, who was also in the back seat, allegedly took the weapon and opened fire.
Prosecutors believe it was indeed Anderson who fired the fatal shots to avenge being beaten by Shakur and his entourage a few hours earlier. However, the man was never charged and was fatally shot in an unrelated incident in 1998. The other two alleged accomplices are also dead.
Under Nevada law, Davis can still be prosecuted for murder even if he did not actually pull the trigger.
Prosecutors told the jurors that Davis, who was arrested in 2023, has made multiple public statements since 2008, in which he detailed his alleged role in Shakur’s murder, thus nullifying any agreement he may have had with law enforcement.
These include several interviews, as well as the 2019 memoir ‘Compton Street Legend’ that he co-authored.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with a deadly weapon with intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He now insists that he fabricated his previous admissions for money and notoriety.
His defense attorney similarly argued that the suspect was “full of c**p” when he publicly spoke about his supposed role in Shakur’s murder, and that no evidence has been presented to back up the prosecution’s allegations.
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