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Ex-gang leader accused of killing Tupac Shakur won't be released on bond, judge rules

Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur, appears in court during a bond hearing at the Regional Justice Center Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool) Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur, appears in court during a bond hearing at the Regional Justice Center Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)
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LAS VEGAS -

A judge on Tuesday again rejected a request to free an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur, saying she suspects a cover-up related to the source of the funds for his bond.

The decision from Clark District Court Judge Carli Kierny came after an attorney for Duane 鈥淜effe D鈥 Davis said he would provide additional financial records to prove that the music record executive offering to underwrite Davis' US$750,000 bail obtained the money legally. Kierny said she was unconvinced after receiving two identical letters apparently from an entertainment company that music record executive Cash 鈥淲ack 100鈥 Jones says wired him the funds as payment for his work.

One letter was signed with a name that does not have any ties to the company, the judge said, while the second letter included a misspelled name and a return address tied to a doctor's office.

鈥淚 have a sense that things are trying to be covered up,鈥 Kierny said.

The hearing took a turn when Davis' lawyer, Carl Arnold, said the bail bond agent used by Davis had provided the entertainment company with instructions on the language for the letters and could therefore testify about their legitimacy.

In a scathing response, prosecutor Binu Palal said the bond dealer may have committed a felony crime by submitting 鈥渁 false document to this court.鈥

鈥淭he state takes that very seriously," he said. "Be advised that it will not go uninvestigated.鈥

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, left, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, listens to his attorney Carl Arnold during a hearing at the Regional Justice Center, on July 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

Palal declined after court to comment. Arnold appeared at the hearing via Zoom and a spokesperson for him didn't immediately respond to an email message seeking comment afterward.

Davis has sought to be released since shortly after his September 2023 arrest, which made him the only person ever to be charged in one of hip-hop鈥檚 most enduring mysteries.

Kierny previously rejected Davis鈥 bid to have Jones put up US$112,500 to secure Davis' release, saying she was not convinced that Davis and Jones weren鈥檛 planning to profit. She also said she couldn鈥檛 determine if Jones wasn鈥檛 serving as a 鈥渕iddleman鈥 on behalf of another unnamed person.

Nevada has a law, sometimes called a 鈥渟layer statute,鈥 that prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crimes.

Jones, who has managed artists including Johnathan 鈥淏lueface鈥 Porter and Jayceon 鈥淭he Game鈥 Taylor, testified in June that he wanted to put up money for Davis because Davis was fighting cancer and had 鈥渁lways been a monumental person in our community ... especially the urban community.鈥

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Also Tuesday, Kierny pushed back the start of Davis' trial from Nov. 4 to March 17.

Davis and prosecutors say he鈥檚 the only person still alive who was in a car from which shots were fired into another car nearly 28 years ago, killing Shakur and wounding rap music mogul Marion 鈥淪uge鈥 Knight. Prosecutors allege that the gunfire that killed Shakur in Las Vegas stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a genre known at the time as 鈥済angsta rap.鈥 

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