LAS VEGAS (AP) — An ailing and aging former Los Angeles-area gang leader is due to ask a Nevada judge on Tuesday to change her mind and release him from jail to house arrest ahead of his trial in the 1996 killing of music legend Tupac Shakur.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, said in court filings that he has submitted additional financial records following a June hearing at which Davis’ bid for release was denied to show the money was legally obtained.
Arnold also argued that since Davis has not been convicted of a crime it doesn’t matter if Davis and Cash “Wack 100” Jones, a hip-hop music figure says he’s underwriting Davis’ $750,000 bail, plan to reap profits from selling Davis’ life story.
Arnold and a spokesperson did not respond to email messages Monday.
Nevada law prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crime.
Prosecutors, in new written court filings, accuse Davis, 61, of “scheming ... to obfuscate the source” of the $112,500 “gift” that Jones testified he put up as a 15% guarantee to obtain Davis’ bail bond.
Jones, who has managed artists including Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, testified by video in June that he was willing to put up money for Davis because Davis was fighting cancer and had “always been a monumental person in our community ... especially the urban community.”
Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny ruled June 26 that she wasn’t satisfied that Davis and Jones weren’t planning to profit. The judge said also she couldn’t determine if Jones wasn’t funneling money to a bond guarantee company on behalf of another unnamed person.
Arnold argued in new court filings that Davis hasn’t been convicted so he cannot be prevented from profiting. Also, because Davis and Jones have no contract for a “movie, series or any other form of media production,” concerns about the source of bail money are “not legally relevant,” the defense attorney wrote.
Prosecutors responded that a judge can set any condition deemed necessary to ensure that a defendant returns to court for trial. If Davis is allowed to post a “gift” for release, he’d have no incentive to comply with court orders or appear for trial, set to begin Nov. 4, they said.
Davis has sought to be released from jail since shortly after his arrest last September. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and could be sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison if he’s convicted. Kierny in January set bail at $750,000. He’s originally from Compton, California, but now lives in Henderson, near Las Vegas.
Prosecutors say Davis’ own words, including in his own tell-all book in 2019 and various police and media interviews are strong evidence that he’s responsible Shakur’s killing. They say they have testimony from other people who corroborate Davis’ accounts.
Authorities allege the killing stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast parts of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”
Shakur had five No. 1 albums, was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted in 2017 into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He died at age 25.
