Inside the Tupac Murder Trial: A Witness Who Warned the Defence
A former Mob Piru enforcer and Death Row Records insider named McDonald took the witness stand in the murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis on August 19, 2026, testifying that he was not present when Tupac Shakur was shot but that those in Shakur's entourage who were there quickly identified who was responsible. BBC
McDonald's testimony, delivered on the second day of trial proceedings at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, produced an unusual courtroom dynamic. Under cross-examination by Davis's defence attorney Michael Sanft, McDonald was repeatedly pressed on whether he witnessed the attack and knew who was present. McDonald raised his voice and arms, telling the court he did not want to answer many of the questions because it "wouldn't be good" for the defendant. He told Sanft directly that the attorney was asking questions that could hurt Davis. At one point, McDonald addressed Davis himself, saying: "I don't want to send him to prison, even though we don't like each other." BBC
To understand why McDonald's testimony matters, some background on the factions at play is essential. McDonald was a member of Mob Piru, a Blood offshoot affiliated with Death Row Records, the label headed by Marion "Suge" Knight that represented Shakur. Prosecutors have alleged that Davis, a 63-year-old former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was the "shot-caller" who conceived a plan to exact revenge on Shakur and Knight after Shakur's entourage attacked Davis's nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, hours before the shooting. PBS; Las Vegas Review-Journal
McDonald testified that although he was not at the scene of the shooting, those in Shakur's entourage who were present rapidly communicated who was responsible. He named Orlando Anderson and "certain other people" as targets of a retaliatory gang war that erupted after Shakur's death, saying people wanted revenge and that Davis and his nephew were "the main subjects of a gang war." Anderson was killed in an unrelated gang-related shooting in 1998 at age 23. BBC; Las Vegas Review-Journal
The trial opened on August 18, 2026, after a jury was selected four days earlier. The first witness called was a Las Vegas police officer. An ex-police officer also testified that Shakur was uninterested in naming those involved in the attack. Three witnesses took the stand on the second day before a 10-minute hearing, with testimony moving from evidence to witness accounts. The Guardian; Las Vegas Review-Journal; News3 LV
Prosecutors have built their case around physical evidence and Davis's own words. Jurors were shown shell casings and autopsy photos of Shakur's body. A 1996 photo of Shakur and Knight was displayed, along with a photograph of the car Shakur was riding in when he was shot. Some members of Shakur's family left the courtroom before the autopsy photos were shown. A forensic pathologist detailed Shakur's fatal wounds on the stand. Separately, a judge ruled in June 2026 that a memoir seized from a Las Vegas-area home tied to Davis is admissible as evidence. Judge Kierny issued that ruling. CBS News; AP; PBS; Las Vegas Review-Journal
Davis is the last living suspect in the 1996 killing of Shakur. AP
The broader context here is a trial that rests heavily on decades-old testimony from witnesses with their own allegiances and liabilities. McDonald's refusal to answer certain questions on the grounds that the answers would harm the defendant inverts the usual courtroom dynamic. Normally, a hostile witness resists the prosecution's questions. Here, the witness clashed with the defence attorney, effectively warning Sanft that his own line of inquiry risked damaging his client. Whether the jury reads this as a witness protecting Davis, or as an implicit acknowledgment that McDonald possesses inculpatory knowledge he is choosing not to volunteer, is a question the prosecution will likely exploit in redirect or closing argument.
The admissibility of Davis's memoir adds another layer. A defendant's own published account of events, seized during a police search of his residence, gives prosecutors a direct evidentiary tool that does not depend on the credibility of cooperating witnesses. Combined with McDonald's testimony that Shakur's entourage identified the responsible parties quickly, the prosecution can attempt to triangulate its case: physical evidence from the scene, the defendant's own written words, and a witness embedded in the rival faction who places Davis at the center of a retaliatory gang conflict.
The killing of The Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, outside the Peterson Automotive Museum, roughly six months after Shakur's death, illustrates the cascading violence that followed. The trial, nearly three decades later, is the first to put a suspect before a jury in connection with either killing.
