Duane “Keefe D” Davis, a 60-year-old former gang leader with involvement in the murder of the renowned American rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur, famously known as 2Pac, pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court on Thursday.
Charges were filed against Davis in September 2023, with the police alleging that he had orchestrated the shooting in collaboration with his deceased nephew, Orlando Anderson, as a response to a confrontation with 2Pac in a casino. The police presented hotel security footage from September 7, 1996, which showed several men physically assaulting Anderson. This altercation was claimed to be the catalyst for the retaliatory shooting of the rapper while he waited in his car at a red light.
2Pac passed away six days later in the hospital at the age of 25. However, during a court hearing in Las Vegas on Thursday, Davis firmly denied the murder charge.
When District Judge Tierra Jones asked for his plea, Davis responded with “Not guilty.”
Following the hearing, Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson stated, “We discussed the matter, and I determined that pursuing the death penalty is not warranted in this case. The global attention it receives doesn’t impact our approach. What matters to us is presenting the evidence to a jury so that they can make the final decision,” as reported by the Review-Journal.