LAS VEGAS (AP) — A book co-written by the man who prosecutors allege ordered the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur can be used in trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.The defense attorney for Duane “Keffe D” Davis tried to bar the 2019 memoir “Compton Street Legend” from being used in trial, which is scheduled to begin Aug. 10, as well as statements Davis had made to police in 2008 and 2009.Davis, 63, faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the drive-by shooting of the rapper in Las Vegas.Shakur was in a black BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas with Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later, while Knight survived with minor injuries.
Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case had gone cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he was in the Cadillac and provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur. The book revived detectives’ investigation, and Davis was arrested in September 2023. Davis pleaded not guilty.
