Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has spoken out after being convicted in connection with the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
In his first interview since the court case ended last week, Davis 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,” he told The Hollywood Reporter from the Clark County Detention Centre 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 1 September, 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.
“Man, they lied about me so much. I don’t even know where to begin. All those cops in there was lying like a mother**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.
“I ain’t got nothing to say to them,” he told the outlet. “I didn’t like the way they was looking at me, like they was ready to beat me up.”
Shakur died on 13 September 1996, six days after being shot in a drive-by shooting. One of four men in a white Cadillac fired 13 shots into the rap legend’s vehicle.
Davis could be facing life in prison without parole. The judge will hand down his sentence at a later date.
