Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur’s death, Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to go on trial over allegations of orchestrating the rap icon’s killing.
How Davis’ legal team is defending him
Duane Davis enters the courtoom during his trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)
Davis, wearing a blue suit and tie, sat quietly with his hands folded on the table in front of him, occasionally nodding along as his attorney gave his opening, and often scanned the room during testimony to see who was in the gallery.“What they are telling you, they are representing as fact, when it’s really fiction,” Michael Sanft said. “There’s no facts.”He said Davis wasn’t previously charged because law enforcement knew that he was “full of crap.”The defense attorney also pointed to missing documents in the original investigation and distrust between police departments.He called one detective’s work “biased,” “sloppy” and “incomplete.”
Defense attorney Michael Sanft speaks to members of the media after court adjourned for the day for the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (Caroline Brehman/Pool Photo via AP)
