LAS VEGAS — Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who’s awaiting trial within the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, has misplaced a bid for a brand new trial in a separate battery case tied to a jailhouse struggle.
The ruling got here Wednesday after a tense listening to in a Las Vegas courtroom that underscored the high-profile standing of the defendant and his upcoming trial in one in all hip-hop’s most notorious crimes.
The jurors who convicted Davis of battery within the jailhouse struggle had been placed on the witness stand Wednesday. One after the other, every of them denied claims by Davis’ son and a person who describes himself as a journalist that they overheard one of many jurors speaking concerning the battery case throughout a lunch break forward of deliberations.
Each Davis’ son, Duane Davis Jr., and the self-described journalist, Richard Bond, testified Wednesday about listening to the juror’s feedback within the hallway outdoors of the courtroom on the ultimate day of a two-day trial in April.
“These two witnesses do have a relationship and a bias and a motive to testify in a sure method, whether or not subconsciously or not,” Clark County District Choose Nadia Krall stated whereas ruling from the bench.
It was revealed Wednesday when prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo questioned the lads individually that they thought-about one another associates, that Bond had been sending cash to each Duane Davis and his son, and that Bond had suggested them to fireside their legal professional, Carl Arnold.
“Ever taken a category on journalistic ethics?” DiGiacomo requested Bond.
“No, I’ve not taken a category on journalistic ethics,” Bond stated.
The struggle in December 2024 in a typical room was captured on safety video. Prosecutors stated Davis was being escorted by a corrections officer again to his unit when he and one other man exchanged phrases after which began combating. Arnold stated he was ambushed and acted in self-defense.
DiGiacomo, who is also prosecuting Duane Davis within the Shakur killing, stated after courtroom that he had no remark. A spokesperson for Arnold’s workplace additionally declined to remark.
Arnold stated in courtroom Wednesday that his shopper didn’t obtain a good trial within the battery case due to the juror’s obvious feedback. The juror himself denied it a number of occasions whereas on the witness stand.
Wednesday’s listening to was not the primary time that the credibility of these with ties to Davis has been questioned in courtroom.
Davis, the one particular person ever charged in Shakur’s demise, had sought to be free of custody shortly after his arrest in September 2023. However a decide rejected his request, saying she suspected a cover-up of the true supply of funds for his bond.
A music report govt providing to underwrite Davis’ $750,000 bail on the time testified that he obtained the cash legally and needed to assist Davis as a result of he is “at all times been a monumental particular person in our neighborhood.”
However the decide stated she was skeptical after receiving two similar letters apparently from an leisure firm that Money “Wack 100” Jones says wired him the funds as fee for his work. One letter was signed with a reputation that had no ties to the corporate, the decide stated, whereas the opposite included a misspelled title and a return tackle tied to a health care provider’s workplace.
Davis has pleaded not responsible to first-degree homicide. He is accused of orchestrating the deadly drive-by capturing of Shakur almost 30 years in the past at a site visitors mild close to the Las Vegas Strip.
Prosecutors say the proof in opposition to Davis is robust, together with his personal accounts of the capturing all through the years in interviews and a 2019 tell-all memoir. His trial is scheduled for February.
Shakur’s demise at 25 got here as his fourth solo album, “All Eyez on Me,” remained on the charts, with some 5 million copies bought. Nominated six occasions for a Grammy Award, Shakur remains to be largely thought-about one of the vital influential and versatile rappers of all time.
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