Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis bail: Accused Tupac killer lashes out in Las Vegas court

Sparks have flown in court as an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader lashed out against prosecutors during his renewed effort to be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny, who in June rejected Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ bid to have a hip-hop music figure put up $US112,500 ($A170,000) to obtain Davis’ $US750,000 ($A1.1 million) bail bond, promised a decision on the bond question “in the next day or two”.

First, though, she expressed doubts about the source of Davis’ funds and scolded defence lawyer Carl Arnold - accusing him of playing up the case to keep media attention on one of hip-hop music’s most enduring mysteries.

“It seems like your plan, your end goal here, is to make some kind of show for the press of this trial,” Kierny said on Tuesday.

“That’s not my end goal here, your honour,” Arnold responded.

“My end goal is to win the trial. If they want to follow me with cameras, they can do that.”

Arnold was recently featured in a British tabloid report that said he was fielding offers for a film crew to follow him working on Davis’ behalf.

The article quoted Arnold calling Shakur’s death a “legacy” legal case and invoking the memory of Johnnie Cochran, a defence lawyer for OJ Simpson during his 1995 trial in Los Angeles. Cochran, who died in 2005, was famously credited with showing jurors a glove and saying, “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”

Davis has been held in a Las Vegas jail since his arrest in September 2023. He stood in shackles and complained about police and prosecutors reviewing material compiled by a former Los Angeles police detective, Greg Kading, for a 2011 book about the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas and rival rap icon Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles.

Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.

“Them boxes should not be allowed,” Davis said of records now being examined by police and prosecutors for possible evidence ahead of his trial, scheduled for November 4.

“Mr. Greg Kading had those boxes at his house for 15 years in his attic doing all kind of TV interviews,” Davis said.

“He broke a proper agreement, and he broke the law, all kinds of stuff.”

Davis also accused the prosecutors, Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal, of “trashing my family in this.”

“They not only ugly on the outside but they ugly on the inside too,” Davis said.

“These two dudes right here.”

DiGiacomo and Palal did not respond later to requests for comment.

Davis said in his own 2019 tell-all memoir - on leading a street gang in his hometown of Compton, California - that he was promised immunity from prosecution when he told authorities in Los Angeles what he knew about the shootings of Shakur and Wallace.

No arrests have ever been made in the Wallace case. Davis is the only person ever charged in the Shakur killing.

Nevada law prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crime. But Arnold argued that since Davis hasn’t been convicted, it didn’t matter if Davis and Cash “Wack 100” Jones, a record executive offering to underwrite Davis’ $US750,000 ($A1.1 million) bail, plan to profit from selling Davis’ life story.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If he’s convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. He and prosecutors say he is the only person still alive who was in a car from which shots were fired into another car nearly 28 years ago, killing Shakur and wounding rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight.

Authorities allege that the shooting stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang and West Coast parts of a Crips gang, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap”.

Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California prison for killing a Compton businessman with a vehicle in 2015.