As jury selection moves forward in the long-awaited Tupac Shakur murder trial, newly surfaced jailhouse audio attributed to Duane “Keefe D” Davis could become another major obstacle for his defense.
The recording captures Davis discussing his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, and details surrounding Shakur’s September 1996 murder. Most notably, Davis appears to contradict his recent claim that he didn’t write the book while also discussing his alleged role in providing the gun connected to the fatal shooting.
That’s significant because Davis has recently attempted to distance himself from decades of incriminating statements made in interviews, documentaries and his memoir. He has maintained that many of those stories were exaggerated or fabricated for financial gain.
“That was the ghostwriters that did it. I didn’t write that book,” Davis recently said while maintaining his innocence.
Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the retaliatory attack following the infamous MGM Grand fight involving Shakur, Death Row CEO Marion “Suge” Knight and Davis’ nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson on September 7, 1996. Authorities contend Davis supplied the firearm used in the drive-by shooting that occurred hours later near the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later at just 25 years old.
Davis has pleaded not guilty and isn’t accused of being the gunman. His defense has instead argued that his previous statements about the murder were embellished to sell books, secure paid interviews and capitalize on his connection to one of Hip Hop’s most infamous unsolved cases.
The jail recording could make that defense considerably more complicated if prosecutors are permitted to introduce it at trial. It potentially gives them another opportunity to compare what Davis is saying now with what he has said when he wasn’t sitting in a courtroom facing the possibility of life behind bars.
The timing couldn’t be more critical.
Jury selection officially began Monday, August 10, in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, with 75 prospective jurors reporting on the first day and another group expected as the process continued. Selection is expected to last through Friday, with opening statements currently anticipated for Monday, August 17.
Nearly 30 years after Shakur was murdered, Davis remains the only person ever criminally charged in the killing. And as his trial finally gets underway, prosecutors may once again attempt to make Keefe D’s own words some of the most important evidence against him.
For somebody who spent years talking about what happened that night in Las Vegas, the question now becomes which version of his story a jury will believe.