LAS VEGAS (AP) — The murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur is headed to closing arguments after the defense rested Thursday following testimony from three former Las Vegas police officers. Jurors are scheduled to return Monday for closing arguments before beginning deliberations in the only prosecution brought in the killing of the hip-hop icon. The presentation of evidence ended after nine days of testimony. Davis, 63, did not take the stand.Shakur was riding in a BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, when a white Cadillac pulled up next to it at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later. The driver of the BMW, Marion “Suge” Knight, survived.Years later, Davis would say he procured the gun and his nephew, who has since died, fired the shots. Prosecutors say Davis orchestrated the killing, and he faces life in prison if convicted of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has pleaded not guilty.
Defense attorney Michael Sanft has argued that Davis fabricated or embellished his accounts of the killing for money and notoriety and that investigators failed to independently corroborate his claims.Retired Las Vegas homicide detective Dan Long, the defense’s final witness, testified that he tried unsuccessfully to verify several details Davis provided during a 2009 police interview.
