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Tupac Shakur Murder Trial Set for Next Month as Judge Allows Key Keefe D Interview
Tupac Shakur’s murder trial begins Aug. 10, with a judge allowing Keefe D’s 2008 police interview and his book to be used at trial.
Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas, the long-delayed case tied to his murder is finally headed to trial, and the court is already sorting through the evidence that could define it. On Tuesday, July 28, Las Vegas judge Carli Kierny ruled that a 2008 police interview in which Duane “Keefe D” Davis discussed the killing can be used in court, according to The Associated Press.
The trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, following multiple delays, and Davis remains the only person charged in the case. In that interview, Davis reportedly told police that Orlando Anderson, the man prosecutors say was the shooter, “popped them,” meaning he shot Tupac and Suge Knight in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996.
Davis’ defense argued the interview was meant to stay confidential and that he had been told it could not be used against him. Prosecutors countered that the statement no longer carried that protection, pointing to Davis’ public comments over the years, as well as his tell-all book, Compton Street Legend, which the court also said can be admitted at trial.
The book itself drew objections from Davis’ attorney, who said it was a fictionalized account made to generate profit. He also argued that Davis was simply “exercising his First Amendment right to free speech, even though it is not in good taste.”
The case had sat cold for more than 20 years before Davis was arrested in 2023, after he acknowledged in the book and in multiple interviews that he was present and provided the gun allegedly used in Tupac’s shooting. Prosecutors say the attack was retaliation for a fight involving Tupac and Death Row members at the MGM Grand shortly before he and Knight were shot in a drive-by near the Las Vegas Strip.
Of the four men said to have been in the suspect car, including Anderson, the others have died and were never charged.
Davis is facing life in prison if convicted.
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