The Verdict | The Trial of Keefe D: Who Killed Tupac?

0:32 Hey everyone, welcome back to Exposed, Scandalous Files of the Elite. I am Jim Chapman, and after 11 days, we finally have a verdict in the DeWayne Keefe D. Davis trial. Now, I did use the term finally, but I gotta be honest, this one was fast. 11 days, it was slated to be over a month, but man, they were moving through witnesses quickly. especially the prosecution. Of course, the defense only called three people. So I'm gonna catch you up on the final couple of days. And it started with day 10 and that was closing statements. Now, after Carly Kearney, the judge, finished reading the jury instructions, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palau, I think that's how you pronounce his name, stood up and he took the jury back to the same sentence he used in opening statements. saying this was a case about gang retaliation and revenge. Now, he told jurors that nearly 30 years earlier, Orlando Baby Lane Anderson was beaten inside the MGM Grand by Tupac, Suge Knight, and their group. And Anderson was not a random kid in the lobby. He was a Southside Compton Crip of consequence.

1:54 He also said Davis was the shot caller of the Burr Street faction, and in that world, that beating would not stand. What happened next, the state argued, was not a chance encounter that turned deadly. Davis acquired a gun. He gathered his people and he went hunting for Shakur and Knight. They looked for them at the club. 662 did not find them. They stopped at a liquor store. Then on Flamingo, they saw that BMW coming the other direction, but they didn't keep going. They made a U-turn. A gun was passed. Shots were fired into the car. Tupac was hit. That U-turn, he said, was the difference between impulse and plan. He walked the jury through the instructions they had just heard. Reasonable doubt had to be actual, not a guess. Common sense was allowed. And under Nevada law, once independent evidence showed the victim died by a criminal agency, a defendant's own admission did not have to be independently corroborated with more proof tying him to a crime. The prosecutor put it simple. Davis's statements were direct evidence. Rain on your face is direct, he said. Dark clouds in a wet driveway are circumstantial. This case, he said, was drenched with circumstantial evidence, even if the jury set Davis's words aside. And then he ran through what he called a little experiment. He told the jury to throw out

3:25 the 2008 police interview And what do you have left? Davis and Anderson were Southside Crips. Death Row and the Mob Piru were on the other side. They had already been in a mall fight over a snatched Death Row chain, which is an ultimate sign of disrespect. Hotel records put Anderson at the Excalibur from September 6th through 8th of 1996. Corey Edwards was at the Monte Carlo. MGM video showed the lobby beating and a former gang member described the earlier fight. Women in a Chrysler Sebring were next to the BMW when the shots rang out. Ingrid Stokes testified she had been in that car and had stayed quiet for years because snitches get stitches. Officers at Knight's house later saw a cream Cadillac in the convoy. Compton erupted afterward and Palau told the jury this was not a war between two random gangs. Then he put Davis's words back on the table. Four statements, he said, mattered the most.

4:32 The 2008 proffer agreement the 2009 Las Vegas Police interview, the 2017 Death Row Chronicles interviews, and the 2019 book Compton Street Legend that Keefie D wrote himself. He said they were not identical. The differences, he argued, matched Davis's motives. In 2008, he was trying to avoid a life sentence on a drug case, so the story was detailed and it was self-incriminating. Later, when camera and book sales were involved, he kind of sanded those edges and tried to thread the needle. It meant enough to stay a man who knows the truth without taking a full legal hit. One fact never moved, though. Davis kept putting himself in that white Cadillac. The prosecutor asked why the man inventing this story would smear his own nephew. Why would he do that if his nephew didn't actually commit the murder? Detective Darren Dupree had testified he believed Davis because no one pins a murder on his family. Unless it's true. The prosecutor said the 2008 version made no sense as a lie.

5:45 Davis could have claimed he was the only witness. Instead, he said he got the gun, sat in the front passenger seat, and would have fired it if the BMW had been on his side. Then he passed the weapon to the back seat. He showed the book excerpts, including the line that Jumping Anderson gave us the ultimate green light. He replayed interview clips of Davis telling people to buy the book for the real truth. He showed MGM footage of Anderson and photos of Davis. Profit for a murder, he said, is not the same as writing a story. This is what Mr. Davis is doing. And he closed the legal box the jury would have to check. aiding and abetting, conspiracy, malice, willful, deliberate, premeditated first degree murder.

6:35 He said Davis did not have to pull the trigger. Who fired is not the question. The shot caller does not just ride along. He gets the gun. He puts people in the car and he made sure they are ready when the targets appear. And his last ask of that jury was blunt. For nearly 18 years, he said Dwayne Davis was had told police, television producers, book authors, YouTube interviewers, and anybody that would listen that he was responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur. Tell him you hear him, he told the jury. Find him guilty. Now, after that, it is the defense turn. And I want to say this before I get into that. It was a pretty good closing statement. Really good, actually. And it was going to be hard to beat. It was going to be hard to take the jury off those stances.

7:27 So as soon as he finished, about two hours, Michael Sanf stood up, the defense attorney, and he didn't ask the jury to pick the better story. He told them the only question that mattered was whether the state had proven first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt. He went on to say even if they reject every defense point that was made, the burden was never moved from the prosecution, and he didn't feel like they proved that. His first question was meant to hang in the room. He said if Davis had truly confessed, why were they here 30 years later? Sanfed then said that Davis had not confessed.

8:10 He had told a story, first to stay out of a federal drug case, later to sell interviews, documentaries, and a book. He went on to say he is not telling the truth. He's telling fiction. Repeated fiction does not make it fact. He walked the jury through the instruction on cooperation, the opposite way the state had. He said if they believed Davis's statements, the law said they did not need more proof connecting him to the crime. But if they did not believe him, they did. Cooperation, he said, was how you test whether something is true. Circumstantial evidence still has to rest on facts. You still have to show facts in order for you to get that circumstantial decision.

8:56 Then he listed what the state never showed. He listed no hotel receipt putting Davis in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996, which means nothing, y'all. Maybe he didn't pay for the hotel. He also listed no phone records, no surveillance of him at the MGM, the fight, Club 662, or the shooting. No photo, no flight ticket, no rental contract for a white Cadillac, no gun, no DNA, no fingerprint. No photo lineup putting Terrence, Trayvon Brown, or DeAndre Smith in that car, Big Dre, and no proof that Orlando Anderson was in that car either. He said, there's not one thing that says Mr. Davis was in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. We can't put Orlando in that car.

9:45 We can't even put Davis in Las Vegas the night of that shooting. He attacked the Lakewood Mall fight that prosecutors used as a spark, saying no police report existed, no footlocker report, no insurance. claim. An FBI agent, he said, could not verify it beyond hearsay. He attacked the shot caller label the same way. He said, what proof is there that Davis had even ordered a hit before Tupac or after Tupac? A Compton detective, he reminded them, had testified he knew of none. You have no evidence that Davis ever even ordered a hit on anyone, much less Tupac.

10:26 He turned to the Cadillac. Now, witnesses described it as a white cream or white colored car pulling up and firing. Officers at Suge Knight's house saw a cream Cadillac in a convoy earlier that night, he reminded the jury. But after the shooting, he said, the contemporaneous vehicle list and scene documentation did not lock that car to Davis, Anderson, or the man named in the interviews. 30 years later, no detective had taken the stand and said they had eliminated competing theories. He used the book against itself that Davis wrote. He reminded the jury Davis wrote that women in a Chrysler Sebring were shot at and that a window was shattered. Ingrid Stokes testified her car was never shot at and no glass was broke. Davis described people in his book yelling Tupac, Tupac, and Tupac hanging out of that window. Witnesses said that did not happen. Times did not match. Locations did not match. And the book itself carried disclaimers about errors. He suggested Davis had not even read the thing and was now being treated, meaning the book, as a confession. He said the people around those statements did not have Davis's best interest at heart.

11:42 He called the process coercion 101 and tied it to dirty cops, a compromised Metro file that had to be locked down, loss reports, unauthorized access, and a Compton Police Department arrest. later shut down amid corruption. He asked the jury, why wasn't Suge Knight brought in from prison? Why weren't other people subpoenaed that were supposedly players? Why did Greg Kading never take the stand after being woven into the state's theory from the start? And that's actually a good question. Sanft also asked a street question the state had used as a motive. If these four men really killed Tupac, where was the retaliation? Anderson died in an unrelated 1997 shooting.

12:27 Big Dre died of medical issues. Trayvon Brown died years later in a robbery. None of them, he said, was taken out in a gang war over Tupac because they weren't even in the car. He told the jury not to leave common sense at the door and not to treat the case like a movie. Tupac was the most famous rapper in the world at that time. Everybody wanted to know who killed him. Wanting an answer was not evidence. The only facts nobody disputed, he said, were that Tupac was shot in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996. and died days later. Everything else had to be proved. And his last instruction to them was not to presume. Look for evidence that supports the claim. Look for the facts.

13:13 He said, we are confident you're going to come back with a verdict of not guilty for Mr. Davis because it's the only verdict that makes sense in this case and the only verdict that has any facts. And that was it His opening statement was over. At that point, the jury got the case. This is in the early afternoon. Now, a trial that had been booked, y'all, as I said at the beginning, for four to six weeks only lasted about two. Testimony ran only nine days. 24 prosecution witnesses, three defense witnesses, hours of Davis's own recorded voice were played, and then the panel went out. and they only took about three hours. The jury came back in with a verdict, and the clerk read the form. We, the jury, in the above entitled case, find the defendant, Dwayne Keith Davis, as follows. Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon. Guilty.

14:11 Dated this 31st day of August, 2026. They then polled the jurors and each said, yes, that was their verdict. Now, Davis, who is 63, incidentally, stood up in a black suit and did not change his face. He had pleaded not guilty. The state never claimed he pulled the trigger. The charge was that he planned the retaliation, got the gun, put the shooters in position after his nephew had been beaten. The jury accepted that theory and under Nevada law, the person who aids a murder can be convicted of murder. And I'll give you a little bit more on that in a minute. Now in the gallery, Tupac's sister cried and hugged the prosecutors. Davis's son covered his face with one hand. It was the first conviction ever returned. Y'all keep this in mind. in the killing of Tupac Shakur some 30 years later. Judge Carly Kearney ordered Davis held without bond and set sentencing for October 13th, 2026 at 1030 a.m. And we're going to get into what he's looking at as far as prison time is concerned. But then Davis raised his hand and he said, quote, I'd like to have my stuff back, computer, all the phones, everything, he told the court. And I would like to appeal this matter. Kearney said, Of course, you have a right to appeal after the sentencing. And that was the end of the evidence phase of a case, y'all, that sat cold for nearly 30 years. So let's talk about this quickly because I want to explain why Kifidi is being

15:44 looked at as the one who killed Tupac, even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. And it really comes down to the way the law views aiding and abetting. So, Aiding and abetting murder is a legal theory that lets the state convict someone who doesn't pull the trigger. The law treats the helper as a principal, meaning they can be charged with the same crime and face the same range of punishment as a shooter. So to put that into simple terms, if you go rob a bank and you have someone drive you to rob that bank, but you're the one that gets out, actually goes in the bank, pulls the gun, steals the money. and leaves, and this driver drives you back, okay, he is as guilty of bank robbery as you are. You don't have to be the one going in there and actually pulling the gun. Now, the idea of this, most United States systems, they long ago dropped what's known as the old common law split between first degree principal, the person that does the act, and second degree principal, which is accessory before the fact.

16:51 the helper, if you will. Now, Nevada's version, which I'm going to focus on because this took place in Nevada, but it really applies in a very large amount of states in this country. It says, every person concerned in a felony is a principal if that person, A, directly commits the act, B, aids and abets, helps that person commit the act, whether present or absent, or counsels, encourages, hires, commands, induces, or otherwise procures another person to commit it. The helper is proceeded against and punished against as a principal. So it doesn't matter if they were actually the one that did it. The state does not have to prove which person in this case actually fired the weapon and which person is the helper. The jury also does not have to agree on the exact theory. whether they conspired or whether they, you know, actually just helped in the crime.

17:53 So long as all 12 agree the defendant is guilty of first degree murder. Now, mere presence isn't enough. Just being there, watching the crime would not rise to the burden that you would need to show first degree murder. Even failing to stop it would not necessarily make you an aider and a better of the crime, but an act of assistance or encouragement will. So that's getting the weapon, driving the car, pointing out the target, giving the order to shoot the target, planning the hit, passing the gun. making the U-turn so the shooter can fire, all those things that occurred in this case. Now, it is required that you have knowledge of the criminal purpose or intent that the crime is going to be committed. So you can't just be in the car and someone's driving and you're not doing anything and they say, let me see your gun for a second. You hand it to them and they point it out the window and kill somebody.

18:54 You would need more than that. You would need to know they had the intent. to kill somebody, or you need to be able to prove that. Now, when you go to first degree murder on a charge like this, it raises the bar of what you have to prove. It's a specific intent crime. In this particular trial with Davis, the judge did instruct the jury that a defendant cannot be convicted of first degree murder on aiding and abetting unless the defendant personally had a willful, deliberate, and premeditated intent to kill. And that matters. It means it's not enough that a killing happened and you were nearby or you were in the car. The state had to prove the aider, in this case, the helper, wanted someone dead or at least form the intent to kill before the act was actually committed, not as an afterthought. In other words, you can't just say, well, I'm glad he's dead. Yeah.

19:50 to be able to prove that you wanted him dead. And I think the state did do that here. And that is why prosecutors kept returning the same facts. They used that beating at the MGM as motive Then they used the fact they went to the Club 662 to look for these guys. The U-turn that they made when they saw Tupac and Suge in that car and the passing of the gun. All those were proof that a plan to kill Tupac was in case and it wasn't just a sudden shootout with these guys. So to sum all that up, what the jury in this case was asked to accept and how they arrived at their verdict. was that Anderson's beating created a motive, a gang debt, if you will, that Davis, who they described as a shot caller, obtained the gun and he put a crew in that Cadillac that they hunted for Shakira Knight. And when that BMW appeared, Davis, by his own recorded account, remember he said all this shit, passed the gun to the back seat, Anderson or another person fired, and Tupac died.

20:56 Knight was wounded. All they had to do was prove all that occurred, and I think they did. And if the jury believed those facts, Nevada law did not require that Davis be the shooter to be the one found guilty. As I said, providing the weapon, directing the crew, and intending that Shakur be killed was enough to make him principal to first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. And that is how the jury voted. came to their decision. So as far as my feeling in this case, after watching and covering all this testimony of the entire case at trial, there's no doubt in my mind this dude is guilty. So what happens to Keefie D now? Well, he's going to stay in jail and sentencing is next.

21:42 He was ordered without bond. That sentencing is set for Tuesday, October 13th, 2026. at 10.30 a.m. in Las Vegas. And as far as his conviction, I'll recap that again. First-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, and that's a Category A felony in Nevada. Prosecutors did drop the extra gang enhancement piece after this verdict, so that add-on is not going to be hanging over him at sentencing. He was not convicted as a shooter. He was convicted as a principal under aiding and abetting law. And here's what he can get for that. Well, for first degree murder, Nevada's laws are as follows. Life without the possibility of parole.

22:25 He could get life with parole eligible after 20 years, or he could get a fixed 50 year term with parole eligibility after 20 years. Now, a deadly weapon finding could add one to 20 extra years in that extra time. generally cannot be longer than the underlying murder sentence. So they typically run in unison with each other. Probation is not available on a murder with a weapon charge. Now, the death penalty does exist in Nevada for first-degree murder, but there's been no public indication the state's going to seek the death penalty here. The question is, is he going to get life with parole or life without parole or that 50 to life style time? Keep in mind, Davis is 63. Even the softest legal option available to this judge, which is parole eligibility after 20 years, would put him in his 80s before he could even ask to get released from prison. At sentencing, the judge will hear from both sides, as well as victim impact statements from Tupac's family. And as you know, he already said in court he wants to appeal. That's normal. He's not going to win any of these appeals, but he's going to appeal because why not? You never know what can happen.

23:48 But none of that's going to start in a real way until after sentencing when the judgment is final. Now, typical issues he may appeal on, whether his old statement should have come in, all those recordings that were played. He'll appeal that 2008 immunity, that proffer agreement. He's definitely going to appeal why any of that was able to come out. The jury instructions on aiding and abetting, he's likely going to appeal on that. And whether the evidence was enough without independent proof that he was even in Las Vegas, he's probably going to appeal on. That's going to take years, and I don't think he has a leg to stand on with that. So until October 13th, he's going to sit in the Clark County Detention Center.

24:33 On that date, he's going to go back to court, and he's going to be sentenced to likely the rest of his life in one way or another, because he'll be well into his 80s before he can even be eligible for parole. But he'll go back to He'll get sentenced, and then it's off to big boy prison for Keefy D, who is 63. No matter what, he likely will never see the outside of prison again. And there you have it. Nearly 30 years later, we have at least one conviction in the Tupac Shakur murder case. I think the jury got it right, and everyone else was dead that was in that car. So the one person that could be held responsible... was the only question is the same question the defense attorney had that I have. Why did it take freaking 30 years to get to this? All this evidence existed 20 years ago. I guess we'll never get the answer to that question. Thank you so much for listening.

25:37 I know this was a little bit different than I typically do. But when these major trials come, I'm going to cover them. A lot of people have appreciated this that joined us just to hear this particular case. So I hope they stick around and we'll be back to, I guess you could say, more normal programming on the next episode. But I hope you appreciated the hard work that I did on this one because I was dropping episodes daily. And this is typically, you know, once or twice a week podcast. We were doing five days a week for the past couple of weeks because I want to keep my people informed. If you'd like to help support the show, please check out the Patreon, patreon.com slash exposed podcast files. I'm going to get into some big time bonus episodes here very soon. You do get those.

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