Tupac Shakur’s alleged killer has sat down for his first jailhouse interview since his arrest, maintaining he is not guilty of the crime that has stumped law enforcement officers for decades.
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 61, was arrested for the murder of Tupac in September 2023 – 27 years after the famed rapper was shot dead in the passenger seat of a car in Nevada.
Until Davis, no one had been arrested for the musician’s death, but the former drug lord continues to maintain his innocence as he sits in Clark County Detention Center awaiting trial.
‘I’m innocent,’ Davis told ABC News from inside the jail.
Prosecutors built their case against Davis using his own self-published, co-written memoir, Compton Street Legend.
They alleged he revealed his part in the murder of Tupac, but the California native said he’s never actually read his own book.
‘I’ve never read the book,’ he told ABC News. ‘Just gave him [cowriter Yusuf Jah] details of my life. And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.
‘They paid me to say that,’ he said, referring to the contents of the book.
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis insisted he’s innocent and hasn’t even read his own memoir, where he talks about the night of Tupac’s death. Until Davis, no one had been arrested for his death
Prosecutors built their case against Davis using his own self-published, co-written memoir, Compton Street Legend, against him. ‘I’ve never read the book,’ he said. He insisted to the news outlet that Jah took artistic liberties during the retelling of that deadly night (pictured: Tupac in 1993)
He insisted to the news outlet that Jah took artistic liberties during the retelling of that deadly night.
Davis also insisted he wasn’t near Tupac on the night he died, but rather in Los Angeles at his home. And he said he has up to 30 alibis that will corroborate that account at trial.
‘I did not do it,’ he told the outlet. ‘They don’t have nothing. And they know they don’t have nothing. They can’t even place me out here. They don’t have no gun, no car, no Keffe D, no nothing.’
Davis said he quit the drug game long ago and did everything people told him to do in order to turn his life around.
‘Get new friends. Stop selling drugs. I stopped all that,’ he told ABC News. ‘I’m supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight at one of my f**king grandson’s football games and basketball games. Enjoying life with my kids.’
Davis had been the leader of the Crips street gang in Compton and authorities insisted he was the ‘shot caller’ when it came to Tupac’s murder.
The rapper was shot in a car off the Las Vegas strip in September 1996 after attending a Mike Tyson fight. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died six days later.
Prosecutors told ABC News that they are confident with the case and expect Davis to be convicted.
The black BMW in which rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down
Davis, 61, was arrested for the murder of Tupac in September 2023 – 27 years after the famed rapper was shot dead in the passenger seat of a car in Nevada
Years ago, Vegas detectives wanted to charge Davis with the murder of Tupac, but held off as prosecutors feared the case would be thrown out due to an agreement Davis made with a federal task force in Los Angeles in 2008.
The former drug lord allegedly admitted to having some involvement in Tupac’s murder, which he made as part of a ‘proffer agreement,’ which protected him from being prosecuted for what he said.
The next year, he spoke with Vegas police, who did not have to honor the agreement, according to ABC News.
Davis’ lawyers tried to argue this in his new case, but it was rejected.
‘I’m not even supposed to be in jail,’ he told ABC News. ‘A deal is a deal.’
He also points blame Reggie Wright Jr., a former police officer who was ran security for Knight’s Death Row Records at the time.
‘Their top witness is the lead suspect, Reggie Wright Jr.,’ he told the outlet. Wright testified to a grand jury to indict Davis.
Davis is the only person still alive who was in the car from which shots were fired.
Davis pleaded not guilty in November to first-degree murder and has remained jailed at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
