Jurors in Tupac Murder Trial Hear Keffe D's 2008 Police Interview: Who Was in the Cadillac and Who Pulled the Trigger
Jurors in the Las Vegas murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis heard a previously secret 2008 police interview on the trial's fourth day, in which Davis described the shooting of Tupac Shakur from inside the getaway car. The recorded interview, conducted on December 18, 2008, placed Davis in the front passenger seat of a rented white Cadillac that pulled alongside Shakur's vehicle on the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996 (Rolling Stone).
Davis, now on trial for Shakur's murder, gave the interview at his lawyer's office in Los Angeles County. He attended the meeting hoping to avoid prosecution on drug charges that could have carried a life sentence, according to Rolling Stone's reporting. Former LAPD Detective Greg Kading opened the session by telling Davis: "Nothing you say can be used against you."
The interview was what investigators call a "proffer session" — a formal meeting in which a suspect shares information as part of a possible cooperation deal with prosecutors. It was recorded, though former LAPD Detective Daryn Dupree, who also participated, testified that he did not know the session was being captured on tape.
In the recording, Davis laid out the seating arrangement in the Cadillac. His nephew Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson sat behind him. DeAndre "Dre" Smith sat behind the driver. Terrence "Bubble Up" Brown drove. Davis said he did not have a clear shot at Shakur, so he passed the gun to the back seat. Smith hesitated. Anderson then grabbed the weapon and opened fire.
The Cadillac pulled up alongside the passenger side of a black BMW driven by Marion "Suge" Knight, with Shakur in the passenger seat, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later at a Las Vegas hospital. He was 25.
The path to the 2008 interview began with a separate case. Dupree testified that he and Kading first approached Davis at his home in the Inland Empire, east of Los Angeles, while investigating the 1997 murder of Christopher Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G. Davis was considered a person of interest in that case because he owned a dark-coloured Chevrolet Impala similar to one investigators believed the killer's vehicle matched. At an earlier meeting, when asked if he was involved in Wallace's murder, Davis said no — then added, "We did the other one," which investigators took as a reference to Shakur.
The 2008 interview later appeared in Kading's 2011 book, Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murders, according to the Associated Press. Davis's defence lawyer has told the court that his client lied in that book, and the defence case rests on the argument that Davis fabricated his account of the shooting (AP News).
Davis admitted his involvement in the shooting on the first day of the trial, according to XXL. BBC News separately reported that Davis told police he was in the white Cadillac when Shakur was killed. The trial is being held in Las Vegas, nearly three decades after the drive-by shooting.
The case is being covered by Court TV, FOX5 Vegas and multiple national outlets. A former detective who participated in a 2009 proffer agreement with Davis also offered his perspective on the case, CNN reported.
The trial continues.
