A former leader of a Los Angeles gang, who is accused of planning the murder of hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur in 1996, was granted bail of $750,000 by a judge on Tuesday. The judge also stated that the accused can be placed under house arrest with electronic tracking until his trial in June.
According to lawyers assigned by the court, Duane “Keffe D” Davis is capable of paying bail after his hearing in Las Vegas. They had requested a bail amount of $100,000 or less.
The attorneys stated in a legal document submitted to the court one day prior that their client, rather than the witnesses as claimed by the prosecution, is at risk. They also assert that their 60-year-old client is in a weakened state due to fighting and overcoming cancer, which is currently in remission, and that he has no intention of evading trial.
After the hearing on Tuesday, defense attorney Robert Arroyo stated that they have confidence in his ability to post bail.
The attorneys claimed that the prosecutors had misunderstood a recording of a phone call from jail and a list of names given to Davis’s relatives. They also alleged that the prosecutors had falsely informed the judge that Davis would be a danger to society if released.
According to Arroyo and Charles Cano, deputy special public defenders, Davis did not make any threats during the phone calls. In their seven-page filing on Monday, they stated that the prosecution’s understanding of the term “green light” is incorrect.
The mention of a “green light” comes from a recording of a call made in October while prosecutors Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal presented it to Judge Carli Kierny from Clark County District Court during the bail hearing last month.
The prosecution did not mention any evidence of Davis giving instructions to harm or physically harm anyone involved in the case. However, they did state that in Davis’ perspective, a “green light” is a signal to carry out a killing.
“According to Davis’s attorneys, Duane’s son claimed there was a green light on Duane’s family. However, Duane himself was unaware of this.”
On Monday, Davis’s legal team referred to him by his first name and urged Kierny to contemplate what they referred to as “the clear inquiry”.
“Why was there a 15-year delay in the arrest of Duane for the murder of Tupac Shakur, despite his perceived danger and the abundance of evidence?”
Prosecutors point to Davis’s own words since 2008 – in police interviews, in a 2019 tell-all memoir and in the media – that they say provides strong evidence that he orchestrated the September 1996 shooting.
Davis’s lawyers claim that his depictions of Shakur’s murder were “intended for entertainment and profit.”
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Davis, a native of Compton, California, is the sole survivor of the car involved in a drive-by shooting that injured rap music executive Marion “Suge” Knight. Knight is currently serving a 28-year sentence in a California prison for a separate fatal shooting in the Los Angeles region in 2015.
On Monday, Davis’s lawyers pointed out that Knight witnessed the shooting of Shakur, but did not give testimony to the grand jury before Davis was arrested on September 29th at his Henderson residence. In mid-July, Las Vegas police had executed a search warrant at his home.
Davis has entered a plea of not guilty for the charge of murder and is currently being held without the option for bail at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. It is common practice for phone calls made by detainees to be recorded at this facility. If found guilty during the trial, Davis could potentially face a life sentence in prison.
Davis claims that he was granted immunity from being charged in 2008 by a joint FBI and Los Angeles police force that was looking into the murders of Shakur in Las Vegas and Christopher Wallace (also known as Notorious BIG or Biggie Smalls) six months later in Los Angeles.
According to DiGiacomo and Palal, any agreement for immunity was restricted. Recently, they presented an audio recording from a taskforce interview on December 18, 2008 to the court. In the recording, they stated that Davis was informed that his statements in the room would not be used against him, but if he were to speak to others, it could potentially harm him.
On Monday, Davis’s lawyers replied by mentioning a book published 12 years ago by a former detective from the Los Angeles police, Greg Kading, who was present at the interviews.
According to the lawyers, Duane is unconcerned because his supposed connection to Shakur’s death has been known to the public since 2011.
Source: theguardian.com
