Suspect in Tupac Shakur slaying indicted in jailhouse scuffle

LAS VEGAS (CN) — Duane “Keffe D” Davis — the suspect in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur — has been indicted by a grand jury on a single battery charge stemming from a jailhouse fight, a month ahead of his scheduled trial in the Tupac slaying.

According to the indictment, Davis got into an altercation with another inmate in a jailhouse common area on Dec. 23. Both men continued to tussle even after officers ordered them to stop and tried to separate them. The other inmate, Rochlon Hamilton, faces the same battery charge.

Davis had been set to appear in court Tuesday for a trial readiness hearing in the Tupac murder case but did not show. When asked by Judge Carli Kierny if he wanted to waive his client’s appearance, Davis’ attorney Carl Arnold said “No, he’ll probably want to be here, your honor.”

Kierny continued the hearing until Feb. 18. Davis will be arraigned on the battery charge Thursday.

Las Vegas prosecutors charged Davis on one count of murder with use of a deadly weapon. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, claiming in a memoir that he was in a car with his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson and that it was Anderson who shot and killed Shakur at an intersection near the Las Vegas Strip.

Anderson denied involvement in the death of Shakur and was killed in 1998 in a shooting in Compton, California. Authorities believe Shakur’s murder stemmed from competition between East Coast members of the Bloods and the West Coast group called the Crips. Davis was part of the latter group that competed for dominance in the “gangster rap” genre.

Davis has been a source of controversy throughout the proceedings. Music manager Cash Jones, also known as Wack 100, paid $112,000 to a bail bondsman for Davis’ release. However, prosecutors say Jones gave Davis the bail money in exchange for the right to produce a series about Davis’ life — a deal that would violate Nevada’s law barring “profit or benefit from wrong.”

In sworn testimony, Jones said no such deal existed. The bail money, Jones claimed, was a gift.

However, this past June prosecutors played recordings of an interview Jones gave on VladTV and a jailhouse phone call between Jones and Davis. In both recordings, Jones spoke about the prospect of a creating a series with Davis — even claiming on VladTV that the series would be a “stipulation” of him paying bail.

Jones downplayed the interview with VladTV, saying his comments were made up to nab views.

“It’s a shame that the world takes what we vlog about as real,” Jones said.

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