Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the man charged in connection with Tupac Shakur’s murder, is seeking to suppress key evidence in the case.
Lawyers representing Davis are pushing to suppress material obtained in what they claim was an “unlawful nighttime search.”
They have filed a motion arguing that a judge relied on a “misleading portrait” of him as a dangerous drug dealer to grant the execution of a search warrant at night, which should only be done in exceptional circumstances, such as if there’s a risk that evidence will disappear if officers wait until morning.
His attorneys claim that in reality, Davis had left the narcotics trade in 2008 and began doing inspection work for oil refineries. They went on to say he was a 60-year-old retired cancer survivor with adult children and grandchildren and had been living with his wife in Henderson, a city outside of Las Vegas, for nine years at the time the warrant was executed.
“The court wasn’t told any of this,” his lawyers wrote in their motion. “As a result, the court authorised a nighttime search based on a portrait of Davis that bore little resemblance to reality – a clearly erroneous factual determination, in other words.”
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which conducted the search and collected Davis’ electronic devices, “purported marijuana” and tubs of photographs, said at the time that executing the warrant under the cover of darkness would allow officers to surround and secure the residence, and that if Davis barricaded himself, the darkness would allow officers to evacuate the surrounding homes with the least exposure to residents.
Police declined to comment on the current claims made by Davis’ lawyers, citing the pending litigation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Davis was arrested in September 2023. He pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and sought to be released shortly after his arrest.
His attorneys claim Davis’ arrest stems from false public statements Davis had made in which he claimed to be present in the white Cadillac from which Shakur was shot.
His lawyers added that he has never offered details that would firmly corroborate his presence in the car, and that he benefited from saying he was present. They also claim that he dodged drug charges by telling the story in a proffer agreement, and he has made money by repeating it in documentaries and his 2019 book.
“Think of it this way: Shakur’s murder was essentially the entertainment world’s JFK assassination – endlessly dissected, mythologised, monetised – so it’s not hard to see why someone in Davis’s position might falsely place himself at the centre of it all for personal gain,” his attorneys wrote.
