Keefe D's Jailhouse Call Contradicts Defense in Tupac Murder Trial

Days after his 2023 arrest in Tupac Shakur's killing, Duane "Keefe D" Davis spent seven minutes on a recorded jailhouse call discussing the memoir that prosecutors plan to use against him at trial. The exchange gives prosecutors another statement to use against the defense's argument over who actually wrote the book.

When the woman on the call asked Davis about the book people said he had written, he answered, "Oh yeah, I did." Prosecutors are expected to use the recording to counter his legal team's argument that a ghostwriter was responsible for the accounts published in "Compton Street Legend."

Davis's 2019 memoir recounts his years with the South Side Compton Crips and offers his version of the events surrounding Tupac's murder. A judge has ruled that prosecutors may introduce the book at Davis's murder trial.

Inside the memoir, Davis describes himself as a "shot caller" and recounts the confrontation that preceded the shooting. Shakur and members of his entourage had attacked Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson fight earlier that night.

Davis wrote that the group could not allow "record company studio gangsters" to treat them that way. He also described pulling alongside the BMW carrying Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight before gunfire erupted near the Las Vegas Strip.

Prosecutors allege Davis helped organize the retaliatory attack and supplied the gun used in the shooting. Authorities have not established who fired the fatal shots, while Davis has pleaded not guilty and continues to fight the charge against him.

Another piece of Davis's past will also reach jurors after a Nevada judge allowed prosecutors to use a 2008 police interview at trial. Davis had sought to keep the interview out, arguing that statements he made during the meeting were protected by an agreement with law enforcement.

Knight could provide jurors with a very different kind of account. He was driving the BMW with Shakur in the passenger seat when another vehicle pulled alongside them and someone opened fire on Sept. 7, 1996.

Shakur, 25, was struck multiple times and died six days later. Knight survived the shooting and appears on the witness list for Davis's trial nearly three decades after the gunfire on Flamingo Road.

The recorded jail call adds another piece to a prosecution built heavily around Davis's own words in interviews and his memoir. Jurors will ultimately decide how much weight those statements deserve as prosecutors seek to prove Davis orchestrated the attack and supplied the weapon used in Shakur's killing.