Lawyers for Duane "Keffe D" Davis are requesting that the former gang member be given bail and be released from jail ahead of his trial in connection with the 1996 murder of Tupac "2Pac" Shakur.
According to Las Vegas outlet KTNV 13, Davis' lawyers filed a motion to a Las Vegas judge months after his arrest in September, to which he's been refused bail ever since. The legal team is now asking for Davis to be placed on house arrest with electronic monitoring, as an "astounding amount of hearsay and speculative testimony" was presented during his arraignment last month.
The lawyers claim that prosecutors have "relied on excerpts from a book titled Compton Street Legend, which was allegedly written by Duane Davis and Yusuf Jah. The State did not delineate which parts of the book, if any, were written by Duane."
“The truthfulness of the content of the interviews was never verified,” the lawyers added in the filing. “The book and interviews were done for entertainment purposes and to make money from a situation that [LAPD officers] and others had already profited [from].”
Davis' lawyers also claim that his health is failing while behind bars, as he's missing "bi-monthly oncologist check-ups" and his "heart health has declined." "He was put back on a group of medications to try to get things under control," the lawyers stated. "He has to take these medications in jail because he is unable to do the things necessary to maintain proper health. His diet in jail is terrible. He is given heavily processed meals full of sodium that barely pass as food."
In September, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department conducted a raid of Davis' home in Henderson, Nevada, where copies of Compton Street Legend were seized, along with pictures from the ‘90s of individuals who might have had involvement in Shakur’s murder. Davis' arrest marks the first-ever arrest made in the case's 27 years, as he's the case's only living suspect.
Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson, was also a member of the South Side Compton Crips and was alleged to also have been involved with Shakur's murder before he died in 1998.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and is due back in court on Jan. 4, 2024 while the trial is scheduled for Jun. 3, 2024.
