More than a decade before Duane “Keefe D” Davis was finally arrested for the murder of Tupac Shakur, a Las Vegas homicide detective believed there was already enough evidence to put him in handcuffs.
Retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detective Dan Long dropped that revelation as the final witness in Davis’ murder trial Thursday, testifying that after interviewing Keefe D in Los Angeles in 2009, he returned to Las Vegas intending to pursue an arrest warrant for Shakur’s murder.
“My intent was to drive back to Las Vegas, type up a warrant for an arrest, clear it with the district attorney, and have Mr. Davis arrested for murder,” Long testified.
According to Long, that arrest never happened.
Long, who worked the Shakur homicide investigation from 2004 until his retirement in 2017, testified that he believed there was “plenty of probable cause” to arrest Davis following the interview. But after prosecutors reviewed the recording and transcript, Long said he was informed that the district attorney’s office would not move forward with a prosecution at that time because of complications surrounding Davis’ previous cooperation with law enforcement.
At the center of the problem was Davis’ earlier proffer agreement.
In 2008, Davis had cooperated with an interagency task force that included federal and Los Angeles-area authorities while he was facing serious drug charges. During those discussions, Davis provided information about the killings of both Shakur and Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace under an agreement that provided protections concerning how his statements could be used against him.
Long testified that when he interviewed Davis in 2009, he knew Davis was facing a major drug case and was attempting to cooperate with authorities, but said he was unaware of the full scope of the earlier proffer arrangement.
“I was told that Duane Davis was arrested on a major drug case, and he was facing the rest of his life in prison, and that he was trying to work that case off,” Long told the court.
After returning to Las Vegas with Davis’ recorded interview, Long said he began receiving additional information suggesting a proffer agreement might exist. Weeks later, prosecutors reviewed the recording and transcript and informed him that they would not pursue the case at that time.
Long and other investigators subsequently attempted to determine exactly what protections Davis had been given, but the legal circumstances surrounding his cooperation complicated any immediate prosecution.
There was another problem: corroboration.
Long acknowledged that investigators were unable to independently verify several important portions of Davis’ account. He attempted to locate records supporting Davis’ claims about Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson receiving medical treatment and searched for documentation concerning the Cadillac allegedly used in the Sept. 7, 1996 drive-by shooting, but those efforts did not produce the corroboration investigators were looking for.
That testimony cuts both ways in the current trial.
The defense has repeatedly emphasized the absence of physical evidence directly placing Davis inside the Cadillac from which Shakur was shot and argues that Davis embellished his stories over the years for money and notoriety. Prosecutors, meanwhile, contend Davis repeatedly provided details about the murder that were consistent with their investigation.
Davis would remain a free man for another 14 years.
He was finally arrested in September 2023 after a Clark County grand jury indicted him in connection with Shakur’s killing. Prosecutors allege Davis helped orchestrate the retaliatory attack following the MGM Grand casino beating of his nephew Anderson by Shakur, Suge Knight and members of their entourage.
Davis is not accused of firing the fatal shots. Prosecutors contend he helped organize the attack and supplied the gun used when a white Cadillac pulled alongside Knight’s BMW near the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur was struck four times and died six days later at 25 years old.
Davis has pleaded not guilty.
Long’s testimony now adds another remarkable chapter to a murder investigation filled with them: authorities arrested Keefe D in 2023, but according to the detective who interviewed him, Las Vegas police were already considering putting together a murder warrant back in 2009.
The difference was that Keefe D had talked—but at the time, exactly how those words could legally be used against him was anything but simple.
Now, nearly 30 years after Tupac’s murder and 17 years after that interview, those words have become a centerpiece of the prosecution trying to send him to prison for life.