GANGSTER Keefe D believes he should be allowed out of jail so he can cash in on his links to Tupac Shakur before standing trial for the rap icon’s murder because he’s “innocent until proven guilty.”
Keefe should even be allowed to work film and TV deals about his knowledge in Tupac’s 1996 killing – even though he has pleaded not guilty to his murder, his lawyer astonishingly declared.
The murder suspect and his lawyer are adamant he should never have been denied bail over concerns he would earn money from talking about his gangster life and concerns about the “source” of the bond cash.
The ex-drug dealing LA Crip enforcer has been trying to make a movie or TV series about his gang life and connections to Pac, Biggie Smalls, Diddy and Suge Knight for several years.
In an exclusive interview with The U.S Sun, Keefe’s lawyer Carl Arnold insists judge Carli Kierny incorrectly referenced a Nevada’s Son of Sam or Slayer Statute, which prevents killers from profiting from writings or shows about their crimes.
Arnold has filed a new motion asking for Kierny to change her verdict, because Keefe, real name Duane Davis, is being unfairly treated.
The veteran lawyer hit back saying Keefe – sometimes spelt Keffe – has every right to make cash from his reputation and Kierny “doesn’t have the authority to deny Keefe selling his rights.”
Keefe believes that using his notoriety, before his November trial, will help raise money for his family and to pay legal costs.
“He is presumed innocent until proven to be guilty and not prevented from deriving any benefit from his life story.”
Carl Arnold, Keefe D’s lawyer
Judge Kierny rejected his $112,500 bail bond, which had been put up by music manager Cash “Wack 100” Jones’, over concerns the pair had been discussing earning millions from Keefe’s life story.
A Nevada law prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crime, but Arnold hit back hard.
Arnold said: “She’s legally incorrect and she doesn’t have the authority to deny Keefe selling his rights, even though he didn’t sell them to Cash Jones – nor is there any proof of that.
“At the first bail hearing, when I wasn’t there, It should have been checked when the judge or the prosecutor said, ‘he shouldn’t be allowed to make any profit off of this case and use that to come up with bail monies or anything like that.’ That’s completely against the law.
“He is presumed innocent until proven to be guilty and not prevented from deriving any benefit from his life story.”
Arnold is confident Keefe will be released on an ankle tag before the end of the month.
He said: “I don’t think the judge has a choice. We outlined and provided her everything that she was concerned about, and now the only thing she can hang her hat on is her misinformed interpretation of the law.”
Arnold feels there are clear similarities with recent client Baltimore boxing trainer Calvin Ford, best known as the trainer for world lightweight champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis. Arnold points to Tank being allowed to earn cash, while on two charges of assault with a deadly weapon.
“He was allowed to have a fight, make money, go about his whole entire life while he was out on bail,” he said.
“Nobody put restrictions on his ability to make money. He wasn’t found guilty of anything. And so for some reason, everyone left that foundational premise innocent until found guilty.
“I’m not pulling the race card here. I’m pulling the economic card. And bottom line, he don’t have the assets. So what are we going to do? We’re going to make him stay in custody and tell him he can’t earn a living?”
“And that’s a big mistake because now you’re saying, well, Keefe couldn’t profit. Well, he profited.
“We know for sure by writing a book, by doing videos, and he made money. Then if the estate of Mr. Shakur wanted any of those monies, all they had to do is go in a civil court and ask for those.
“Now why is the judge and the DA on this misinformed notion that he can’t make money until he is proven guilty? If he’s ever proven guilty?”
Arnold insists that Kierny has handed Jones’ full bank paperwork showing his bail bond came from legitimate income streams.
The attorney noted Keefe will not try to flee and is “no threat” to the community once released on house arrest with ankle monitoring.
Why it’s taken so long for justice in the Tupac Shakur case
By The Sun’s Senior Reporter Emma Parry, who has been reporting on the Tupac murder for the past 10 years.
TUPAC fans have been waiting for justice for the iconic rapper for almost 28 years.
Finally in September 2023 there appeared to be progress with the arrest of Duane “Keefe D” Davis – a former Southside Crip gangster from Compton, LA – who had been telling the world for years that he and his fellow “gang soldiers” were responsible for the hit.
I’ve been reporting on the case for several years and it always appeared pretty cut and dry…Keefe had spent the past decade gaining notoriety by boasting about his alleged involvement in the shooting – now he was finally getting what he deserves. But despite Keefe running his mouth for years, I now believe a guilty verdict in November’s trial is far from guaranteed.
Keefe describes in great detail in his memoir Compton Street Legend what went down the night Pac was shot, extracts from which The U.S. Sun has published.
He claimed that he was offered a million dollars by rapper Diddy to “handle” Tupac and Suge Knight and when he and his Crip gangsters came across the pair driving near the Strip in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, Keefe alleged he passed the gun to his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who took the shot. Keefe said if Pac had been on his side: “I would have blast”.
Keefe repeated the claims multiple times over the years, on YouTube channels, documentaries, and even in taped confessions to police, when he believed he could not be prosecuted. In one confession to the LAPD, Keefe appeared completely remorseless telling detectives: “We didn’t give a f**k…The ambulance [for Tupac] was parked right here next to us. That s**t was as funny as a motherf**ker.”
The Sun has been publishing stories about Keefe’s self confessed involvement in the crime since 2018.
I sent many links to his confessions to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, asking them why this man had not been arrested yet. They would thank me for the info but say that they could not comment because the case was still active. From the outside, it looked like no action was being taken at all.
We spoke to former detectives involved in the case and documentary makers who all felt utterly frustrated at the lack of progress in the case. We even published a plea from former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who had probed the murders, urging Las Vegas cops to arrest Keefe, back in 2020.
For years, the case appeared to have been forgotten and ignored, to be left forever unsolved.
But finally, in the summer of 2023, we got word from our sources that there had been a huge development in the case. A secret grand jury was due to be held on whether or not Keefe should be indicted. I was dubious at first but around the same time a house in Henderson, Nevada, linked to Keefe, was raided in July as part of the Tupac investigation.
Things were heating up.
Later that summer, behind closed doors, jurors listened to hours of testimony from former cops, detectives, and coroners involved in the Tupac case and gangsters and associates of Keefe’s and Pac’s from back in the day. They were shown graphic photos of Tupac’s bullet-ridden body. After days of evidence, they decided there was enough evidence to prosecute Keefe.
Once the secret documents were released I poured over the transcripts. While interesting, many of the witnesses were telling stories they’d heard second-hand. None of the prosecution witnesses had a clear look at who shot Pac. One witness Devonta Lee claimed another gangster called Big Dre took the shot – not Orlando. Maybe things weren’t as clear-cut as I first thought.
Keefe was then arrested on September 30, 2023 at his home. Bodycam footage we obtained from the scene showed Keefe bragging to cops even as he was handcuffed in the back of a police car – telling officers he was involved in the “biggest case in Las Vegas history”.
Following Keefe’s multiple appearances in court, he seems to have lost much of that bravado and now cuts a sad, lonely figure.
Suffering from various health problems as a result of cancer, he’s struggling to cope with the brutalities of jail life and can’t get together enough money to afford his bail. He feels some of his old Southside Crip associates – men he handed wads of cash to in his glory days, have just abandoned him.
Keefe is now desperate to get out of jail, and his defense stems is leaning on his claim that he completely made up his involvement in the Tupac murder for fame and money. He saw other people cashing in on the murder so he thought he would too. He reckons his confessions to police were all lies – he made it up because he was under a plea deal and thought it would help him beat his other charges.
And, according to his lawyer Carl Arnold, he wasn’t even in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. Arnold remains convinced he will see his client walk free and their secret weapon could be former Death Row Records boss Suge.
As the only other person still alive from either car, Suge, currently in prison for a fatal hit and run, would be a key witness. Suge is the only person still alive who knows what went down – he saw the shooter. While he’s said he won’t testify at the November trial, Suge has claimed in a TMZ interview from prison that Orlando was not the shooter, which again throws into doubt Keefe’s version of events.
Keefe and his lawyer are hoping they might be able to change his mind and persuade him to testify for the defense. And Suge holds the power to blow the prosecution’s case apart.
And if Keefe walks free, will there ever be justice for Pac?
He is concerned at prosecutors’ efforts to keep Keefe at the Clark County Detention Center, because he “deserves” to be able to earn money.
Arnold said: “Here’s the thing is if this was anybody else with assets, this would even have been a discussion. And it is what they do.
“I’m not pulling the race card here. I’m pulling the economic card. And bottom line, he don’t have the assets. So what are we going to do?
“We’re going to make him stay in custody and tell him he can’t earn a living?
“He is one of the few that can actually earn a living while being in custody.
“He could provide for his family, but he’s facing life sentence and you’re going to tell me he can’t provide for them. Why? He hasn’t been found guilty yet. That’s what I’m saying. They’ll always stomp on the guy that doesn’t have number one, a voice and number two, the assets.
“Luckily Keefe has someone – me – that has a voice.”
Davis has pleaded not guilty to the 1996 murder of Tupac in Las Vegas.
He faces life imprisonment should a jury find him responsible.
Arnold has stated to The U.S Sun that Keefe has spent years lying about his role as the “shot caller” in rapper Tupac’s killing for “fame and money.”
He added that prosecutors only have “circumstantial evidence” and no proof his client was even in Sin City on the night of Pac’s murder, September 7, 1996.
On June 27, Kierny listened to an hour of arguments and reviewed financial records from Jones.
She ruled that Jones: “testified he was bonding out Mr. Davis because Mr. Davis was fighting cancer and had been a pillar of the community, [however] his previous interviews with [YouTuber] VladTV suggested another motive.”
She also stated records that were provided to the court were “insufficient” to show the funding came from a legitimate source, records showed withdrawals from Jones’ account from December 2023 to May 2024, and they don’t show “many of the larger deposits to these accounts, only that they were made via wire transfer.”
The Eighth District Court ordered a Bail Reconsideration hearing set for July 23.
