KEN RITTER, Related Press
1 day in the past
FILE – Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration occasion in South Central Los Angeles, August 15, 1996. A former Los Angeles-area gang chief jailed in Las Vegas in slaying of hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 has employed a personal legal professional to symbolize him forward of his homicide trial scheduled for this summer time. Duane “Keffe D” Davis has fired court-appointed attorneys and employed legal protection legal professional Carl Arnold, in accordance with a courtroom doc launched Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (AP Photograph/Frank Wiese, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Los Angeles-area gang chief jailed in Las Vegas within the 1996 slaying of hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur has employed a personal legal professional who indicated on Monday at what he expects will likely be a historic trial for homicide.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis has fired court-appointed attorneys and employed veteran legal protection legal professional Carl Arnold, who stated in a press release that his workplace was “honored by the chance to symbolize Mr. Duane Davis in what will likely be one of the historic trials of the century.”
“We hope that Mr. Davis will likely be discovered not responsible on the conclusion of his trial,” the assertion stated, including that Davis is anticipating the posting of bond so he may also help put together his protection.
Robert Arroyo, considered one of Davis' former attorneys from the Clark County particular public defender's workplace, stated Monday that he and co-attorney Charles Cano wished Davis properly and referred inquiries to Arnold.
Arnold served in the course of the public fatality evaluate as a consultant of family of individuals killed by the police. He has additionally been sanctioned twice by the Nevada State Bar throughout 20 years of follow.
One, in 2018, was for not correctly submitting paperwork within the defendant's enchantment to the state Supreme Court docket. The opposite, in 2021, was for not representing a defendant within the Las Vegas Court docket of Justice. Every time, Arnold acquired a written warning and was fined $1,500.
Davis, 60, initially from Compton, Calif., is the one particular person nonetheless alive who was within the automotive from which photographs have been fired within the September 1996 taking pictures that killed Shakur and wounded rap mogul Marion.” Suge” Knight. Knight is serving 28 years in a California jail for an unrelated deadly taking pictures within the Los Angeles space in 2015.
Davis has for years described his position in Shakur's homicide, although his protection attorneys have argued that his accounts exaggerated the violence to draw viewers and earn money.
Prosecutors say Davis incriminated himself because the “shot-caller” in Shakur's homicide throughout accounts to a joint federal and Los Angeles Police Division activity drive in 2008; to Las Vegas police in 2009; in an interview for a BET documentary in 2017; in his personal guide of every part in 2019; and in more moderen interviews.
Arnold stated his consumer “can’t be convicted solely on the idea of his confession,” and that prosecutors should present corroborating proof to show Davis' guilt past an affordable doubt.
Davis was indicted by a grand jury in Las Vegas and arrested in September outdoors his house in suburban Henderson. He has pleaded not responsible and stays jailed on $750,000 bail forward of a Feb. 20 standing verify within the case.
If he posts bond, Davis will likely be beneath home arrest with strict digital monitoring. It was not instantly clear whether or not the change in attorneys would delay his present June 3 trial date.
Davis claims he was granted immunity from prosecution in 2008 by an FBI and Los Angeles police investigation into the Las Vegas homicide of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace, often called The Infamous BIG or Biggie Smalls, six months later in Los Angeles.
Arroyo and Cano argued that police and prosecutors may have arrested Davis 15 years in the past however didn’t, that he’s unwell after battling most cancers, which is in remission, and that he wouldn’t flee to keep away from trial.
His former attorneys additionally famous that prosecutors didn’t have the gun and automotive concerned in Shakur's taking pictures, and downplayed the credibility of former gang members as witnesses towards Davis.
