Judge allows use of police interview in trial for man accused of killing Tupac Shakur
Jul 28, 2026, 12:38 PM | Updated: 6:12 pm
Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 1996, left, and Duane "Keffe D" Davis appears in District Court for his involvement in the 1996 killing of Shakur in Las Vegas on Feb. 18, 2025. (AP Photo)
Credit: AP Photo/undefined
(AP Photo)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge ruled on Tuesday that the recording of an interview the man accused of killing Tupac Shakur gave to police in 2008 could be used at his upcoming trial.
Judge Carli Kierny found that the interview is admissible in Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ trial, which is scheduled to start Aug. 10.
Davis, 63, is charged with murder in Shakur’s 1996 killing.
Shakur’s death is considered one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the United States. The case went cold until Davis began making public statements about it, including in a book he co-wrote in which he said he was in the Cadillac and provided the weapon used to shoot Shakur.
Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued that the 2008 interview Davis gave law enforcement was supposed to be confidential, and that detectives explicitly told him the interview was not supposed to be used against him.
Prosecutors argued there was no basis to exclude the interview from the trial, which is expected to take about four weeks.
The interview was used in former Los Angeles Police Department Detective Greg Kading’s book “Murder Rap: The Untold Story of the Biggie Smalls & Tupac Shakur Murder Investigations.” Portions of the recording were also played in documentaries, including the recent documentary “Sean Combs: The Reckoning.”
Shakur was killed Sept. 7, 1996, in Las Vegas. He and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight were sitting at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up beside them near the Las Vegas Strip, and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later. Knight survived with minor injuries.
