Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former gang leader charged with the 1996 drive-by shooting murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur, called just three witnesses before resting his defense at his Las Vegas trial in less than two hours on Thursday. Closing arguments in the closely watched case are set for Monday. Davis’ lawyer, Michael Sanft, centered the defense on testimony from three former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers in an effort to raise reasonable doubt.
Charlie Mangrum testified that they were working overtime the night Shakur was shot, keeping an eye on the Las Vegas home of Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, who was expected to host a party after boxer Mike Tyson won a bout at the MGM Grand. Hyt and Mangrum said they saw a light-colored Cadillac arrive at the house and later leave as part of a convoy that included Knight driving Shakur in his BMW. Sanft apparently highlighted the testimony because witnesses later told police that it was a light-colored Cadillac that pulled alongside Knight’s BMW less than an hour later, when someone in the back seat opened fire, fatally wounding Shakur.
According to prosecutors, Davis, a leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was riding in the front passenger seat of the rented white Cadillac involved in the shooting. They allege he was the “shot-caller” that night and allowed his nephew, Orlando Anderson, to open fire on the BMW in retaliation for an attack by Shakur and his entourage on Anderson inside the MGM Grand about two hours earlier. Suggesting that Knight had a light-colored Cadillac in his convoy could introduce more uncertainty.
Sanft didn’t connect the dots, but other tips and theories about different alleged shooters have floated around for decades. On the second day of trial testimony, for instance, jurors heard about an alternate conspiracy theory that Knight’s security chief, Reggie Wright Jr., was involved in Shakur’s killing. Prosecutors raised the theory while questioning James McDonald, a former associate of Knight and member of the Mob Piru Bloods, who testified under a court order Aug. 18.
McDonald, also known as “Mob James,” rejected the idea that Wright wanted Shakur dead as part of a power grab. Tupac was the money source. Tupac was that guy at Death Row.” Under cross-examination by Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo on Thursday, Mangrum said his report from that night included the license plate numbers of all the vehicles that entered Knight’s property.
Asked whether homicide detectives in 1996 would have followed up on that information, he said yes. Davis’ third and final witness was former Las Vegas Metropolitan Police homicide Det. Dan Long, who led the Shakur murder investigation from 2002 to 2017.
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