Duane “Keefe D” Davis pleads ‘not guilty’

The former gang leader accused of murder in the investigation into the assassination of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur 27 years ago pleaded not guilty Thursday, November 2, in a Las Vegas court.

Duane Davis, known as “Keefe D”, was charged in September with this murder, although he was not the one to have held the weapon during the crime perpetrated in this metropolis in the western United States on September 7, 1996. Now aged 60, the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, a Los Angeles gang, has long admitted his involvement in the murder of Tupac Shakur, who was 25 at the time .

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He notably boasted of having been the “commanding officer” of the operation aimed at killing Tupac as well as the boss of the Death Row Records label, Marion Knight, known as “Suge”, in retaliation for an attack against his nephew. But during his appearance Thursday in Las Vegas, Duane Davis pleaded “not guilty” facing his indictment for murder. Under Nevada law, anyone who promotes and participates in a murder, even indirectly, can be charged with that crime.

Tupac Shakur, known for hits Dear Mama, California Love Or Changes, was a huge star in the rap world at the time of his death. He depended on Death Row Records, a label associated at the time with the Los Angeles gang Mob Piru, at war for a long time with Duane Davis’ South Side Compton Crips. Prosecutors said last month that the prosecution had long suspected that “Keefe D” was involved in the murder, but did not have enough evidence to charge him. Things began to unravel when Davis, the last person still alive among the team in the Cadillac where the shots were fired, published an autobiography and spoke about the murder on television. .