Gang Associate Testifies Reluctantly at Tupac Shakur Murder Trial in Las Vegas
A former gang member who worked as unofficial security for Suge Knight took the witness stand on the second day of the murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the last living suspect in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur.
James "Mob James" McDonald, a member of the Mob Piru Bloods gang, testified under a court order on 18 August 2026 in Clark County, Nevada. He told jurors he did not want to be there. "I don't want to send him to prison," McDonald said of Davis, according to Rolling Stone.
Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with use of a deadly weapon. Prosecutors allege he procured the weapon and directed the shooting that killed Shakur on 7 September 1996, after a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. They say it was Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson — Davis's nephew and a high-ranking member of the South Side Compton Crips — who pulled the trigger. Anderson died in 1998.
McDonald told the court he was working at Knight's Las Vegas nightclub, Club 662, when he learned that Shakur and Knight had been wounded in a drive-by shooting. He described people returning to the club after the shooting, according to News 3 Las Vegas. Earlier that evening, prosecutors say, Shakur had got into a fight with Anderson inside the MGM Grand casino — a confrontation captured on surveillance video and shown to jurors during the trial, as NBC Los Angeles reported.
McDonald said he knew everybody who was at the scene the night Shakur was fatally shot. He refused to name them. Under cross-examination by defence attorney Michael Sanft, McDonald offered candid accounts of the violent conflict between the Crips and Bloods street gangs in Los Angeles, CNN reported. He testified that a "gang war" erupted after the shooting between the Mob Piru Bloods and the South Side Compton Crips, and that Anderson and others were subsequently hunted by people who wanted them dead.
Reggie Wright Jr., Knight's official head of security at the time, also testified. Wright said he was at Club 662 the night of the shooting and identified McDonald's brother, Alton "Buntry" McDonald, as part of the entourage that accompanied Shakur and Knight to the Tyson fight. Wright also named another member of Knight's private security, Roger "Neckbone" Williams, as a participant in the MGM Grand melee.
Earlier in the trial's second day, a forensic pathologist detailed Shakur's fatal wounds as grisly autopsy photographs were displayed in court, according to the Associated Press. Shakur's family left the courtroom as the photos were shown.
Davis is the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur's death. If convicted, he faces a life sentence. The trial began on 18 August in Las Vegas, nearly 30 years after Shakur was shot on the Strip and died six days later at age 25.
