Why Keffe D Believed His Tupac Confession Could Never Be Used artwork

Why Keffe D Believed His Tupac Confession Could Never Be Used

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

August 21, 2026

Tupac Shakur's family sat in a Las Vegas courtroom and listened to Duane "Keffe D" Davis describe the night of September 7, 1996 in his own voice.
Speakers: Tony Brueski

Topics: True Crime, News, News Commentary

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:11)
Two detectives made Duane Davis a promise. Duane Davis was Keffe D, the man on trial for the murder of Tupac Shakur. The promise was made in 2008 Tupac, by the way, died in 1996 One of them said it out loud on tape. And this is kind of why we're here today, because Duane Davis, Keffe D, well, he believed it. He believed what the officers told him. Now, what he revealed in the weight of it is like, well, I don't know that we can keep that a secret. And who made the promise and what the restrictions on that promise are really are the whole reason there's a trial going on, because Keffe D thought, well, I can say whatever I want now. Whether that's making things up in our news or it's telling his truth.
As he once strongly argued in books, on podcasts, in interviews, anywhere anyone would listen and provide a little payday.
And one of them said it out loud on this tape that was played in court. Nothing you say today can be used against you.
That's where the crux of a lot of this case is. Another voice on the recording went further. Nothing leaves this room.
Gee, I wonder why people are hesitant to testify or reveal information on these cases in this world.
On day four of Davis' murder trial in Las Vegas, that recording played through the courtroom speakers. The jury deciding whether he dies in prison heard every word of the promise. Some people in the gallery shook their heads as it played Tupac Shakur's Family, sat still and listened. The detectives weren't there to ask Davis about Tupac at all. And the story he told them wasn't the story he'd given the government the first time, they asked. Juries watched a transcript roll across the screen while the audio played, some of them taking notes. What they heard was Davis in his own voice describing the night of September 7th, 1996 Four men ride in a white Cadillac near the Las Vegas Strip. They spot Shakur hanging out of a black BMW. People on the sidewalk calling his name. Shug night, the driver's seat. The Cadillac pulls up alongside and Shakur's car sits on the opposite side from Davis.
If we would have been on my side, I would have blasted. That's the defendant on tape to police saying he would have shot Tupac if the car had been on the opposite side. It was the first time Davis ever discussed his involvement in the killing with authorities. Instead, Davis said he passed his gun to the back seat. He handed it to DeAndre Big Dre Smith, who did not want it. Davis' nephew Orlando Baby Lane Anderson took the weapon and started firing. Davis said he figured Knight died too. Knight survived. Tupac was 25 years old and he died six days later. Davis, now 63, this crime now 30 years ago, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with a gang enhancement and he faces life in prison if convicted. He's pled not guilty. Prosecutors told the jury at openings that Davis never pulled the trigger. They allege he planted the shooting or planned the shooting rather as revenge for the beating his nephew took from Shakur's entourage at the MGM Grand hours earlier. After Anderson, Orlando, the trigger man allegedly snatched a death row chain off a man in Shakur's circle. Remember the death row chains? Davis was at the Mike Tyson fight that night but wasn't part of the brawl. The jury has already watched the beating on video. You may have watched it if you followed this case sometime in the last 30 years. For 30 years, the argument about this case has been about who fired the shots. The jury doesn't need that answer because Davis isn't accused of shooting anyone. The indictment lays out the state's theory in layers. Davis allegedly killed Shakur or aided in the killing by obtaining a gun and handing it to someone else or conspired to carry it out. The burden is the plan and the weapon. The tape has Davis describing both. The hunt for Shakur's car, the gun moving from his hand towards the back seat and what he says he'd have done if the angle had been his. The most famous question in hip hop history was always aimed at the wrong seat of the Cadillac.
Here's why any of this exists on tape. The detectives in that 2008 room were part of a task force investigating a different murder. The killing of the Notorious BIG.
Davis had briefly been a suspect in that case before investigators moved on. Everybody was a suspect at the time. Darren Dupree, one of the detectives from the interview, testified to that at trial.

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