Tupac murder suspect Keefe D pleads not guilty

Duane Keith “Keefe D” Davis, the Nevada resident who was arrested in September and charged in the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, entered a plea of not guilty to a charge of murder with a deadly weapon in a Los Angeles court today (November 2). Davis was represented by public defenders Robert Arroyo and Charles Cano, as reported by the Associated Press.

For years prior to his arrest, Davis spoke openly and freely about his connection to the death of Shakur. Davis told a detective in 2009 that he was in the vehicle that fired at Shakur's on the Las Vegas strip on September 7, 1996, claiming that his nephew Orlando Anderson was the gunman. Anderson was shot to death nine months after Shakur's killing; the other two men in the vehicle, Deandrae Smith and Terrence Brown, have also since passed away. Davis is the first person charged with Tupac's case since the case was opened decades ago.

Davis was less definitive when he spoke about the killing for an episode of BET’s Death Row Chronicles. “It just came from the back seat, bro,” Davis said when an interviewer asked him who shot Tupac. Davis further discussed his role in Tupac's death during a widely-viewed interview with DJ Vlad, and in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend.

The state of Nevada is reportedly not seeking the death penalty against Davis, though he does face a maximum sentence of life in prison. Read The FADER's explainer on the Keefe D case here.