Duane “Keffe D” Davis is speaking out after being convicted in connection with the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
In his first interview since being convicted of the rapper’s first-degree murder earlier this week, Davis, 63, maintained his innocence and said he expects to be released from prison.
“S—t, I ain’t worried. I’m getting out on an appeal,” Davis told The Hollywood Reporter from the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada. “We already filed it before the trial even started. They violated my civil rights!”
A Las Vegas jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder on Monday (Sept. 1), marking the first conviction in the nearly 30-year-old case surrounding Shakur’s killing. Prosecutors alleged that he orchestrated the drive-by shooting in retaliation for an earlier altercation involving his nephew and members of the hip-hop legend’s entourage.
The Compton, California, native said his 2019 autobiography, Compton Street Legend, which was a key piece of evidence during the trial, was improperly used against him in court.
“I never wrote that book. The author told me to tell them 10 stories about what happened in your life and get them some pictures,” Davis said. “I never read that book or went over that book or nothing. They didn’t even spell my name right on the cover.”
Davis also said witnesses misrepresented his character throughout the trial, including FBI agents and police officers who testified for the prosecution.
“Man, they lied about me so much. I don’t even know where to begin. All those cops in there was lying like a motherf—ker,” he said. “The prosecutors were lying about me.”
He added, “I’m a good man, man. I’m a good person. I’m not no f—king killer. Puff never offered me no f—king million dollars for them.”
Davis noted that he did not take the stand during his trial because his lawyer told him “it would mess up my chances of appeal.”
Following the trial, jurors took just three hours to convict him, while Shakur’s family expressed gratitude and relief over the outcome. Davis addressed whether he had a message for the rapper’s family.
“I ain’t got nothing to say to them,” he said. “I didn’t like the way they was looking at me — like they was ready to beat me up. And I didn’t like the way the prosecutors kept bringing them in the back room where the jury was. That felt biased to me.”
Michael Sanft, the defense attorney who represented Davis, recently told NBC News that his client intends to appeal the conviction.
“I’m innocent, man. They got an innocent man sitting in jail,” Davis told THR. “I’ve got two grandsons that are going to the pros in football. They All-Americans — one of them is in high school. He has 25 scholarship offers, and the other one is in college. And when they get their millions, they’re coming to get me out of here.”
