Posted on: June 25, 2024, 05:16h.
Last updated on: June 25, 2024, 05:23h.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the accused orchestrator of rap legend Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder in Las Vegas, was denied bail at a hearing on Tuesday, with Clark County District Judge Carli Kierny citing concerns over the source of the funds.
Kierny heard arguments from prosecutors and from Cash Jones, a music manager who wanted to post the required 15% of Davis’ $750,000 bail. (The other 85% percent was to be secured by a bail bond company called eBAIL, owned by Las Vegas bail agent Marc Gabriel.)
Cash Cow
Jones, known in the business as “Wack 100,” told Kierny that he wanted to bail Davis out as a “gift.”
However, prosecutors argued that what Jones really wanted was to record interviews with Davis, which would have violated Kierny’s orders for Davis not profit from his statements.
Jones is known for managing rappers with rap sheets. His clients including Blueface, who last year took a plea deal for his role in a 2023 Las Vegas Strip club shooting, receiving three years of probation — which he was arrested for violating on Jan. 12, 2024.
Jones also represents The Game, whose criminal record includes a 2007 felony weapons charge, assaulting an off-duty police officer in 2015, and, the following year, being sued civilly for sexually assaulting a contestant on the VH1 reality show “She Got Game,” in which he starred. (A $7.1 million judgement against him was affirmed by an appellate court.)
Jones is also known for making controversial remarks about Shakur, having called him a “perpetrator” who makes “garbage” music.
At the hearing, Kierny said that Davis’ request for bail would be taken “under advisement,” but did not grant the request. She said she would review records, and noted that the request could be brought to court again.
This decision means that the 61-year-old former self-proclaimed leader of LA’s Southside Crips gang will most likely remain in the Clark County Detention Center until his trial, which is scheduled for Nov. 4.
Murder Was the Case
Davis, an alleged member of the Southside Compton Crips gang, is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s murder. He’s also the only surviving person who rode in the car from which the shots were fired on Sept. 7, 1996.
Though he is not charged with pulling the trigger, Davis is accused of orchestrating the crime, which Nevada law also defines as murder.
Orlando Anderson, Davis’ nephew and fellow alleged Crips member, was questioned but never charged in connection with the crime. He died two years later in a gang-related shootout at a Compton, Calif. car wash.
Two hours before Skakur was gunned down, he and a posse that included Knight were videotaped stomping on and kicking Anderson as he exited a boxing match at the MGM Grand. All members of the posse, including Shakur, were believed to be affiliated with Mob Piru, a larger part of the Bloods gang, the Crips’ sworn enemy.
Two other men were suspected of riding in the white Cadillac from which Shakur was shot through the rear left window. Driver Terry Brown and Deandrae “Big Dre” Smith also died without ever being charged.
Davis pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder last November 2. If convicted, he is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison.
