LAS VEGAS (AP) — A fierce courtroom dispute erupted Tuesday as a Nevada judge scolded defense lawyers and blasted prosecutors who were making renewed efforts to have an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader released from prison to house arrest ahead of his trial for the 1996 murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
Clark County District Judge Carly Kearney last month denied hip-hop music celebrity Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ motion to post $112,500 to secure $750,000 bail, but promised to make a decision on the bail issue “within a day or two.”
But first she expressed doubts about Davis’s funding sources and scolded his defense lawyer, Karl Arnold, accusing him of exaggerating the case to keep media attention on one of hip-hop music’s longest-running mysteries.
“It seems to me that your plan, your end goal here, is to make some kind of spectacle of this trial for the press,” Kearney said.
“Your Honor, that’s not my end goal,” Arnold responded. “My end goal is to win this case. If they want to follow me on camera, so be it.”
Arnold was recently featured in a British tabloid article where he was reportedly being offered a film crew to represent Davis. The article reported that Arnold called Shakur’s death a “legacy” lawsuit, evoking the memory of Shakur’s lawyer, Johnnie Cochran. O.J. Simpson during his trial in 1995 In Los Angeles, Mr. Cochran, who died in 2005, famously showed jurors a pair of gloves and told them, “If they don’t fit, you have to acquit them.”
Davis has been incarcerated in a Las Vegas jail since then. He was arrested last SeptemberHe was shackled and complained that police and prosecutors were sifting through material compiled by former Los Angeles Police Department detective Greg Kaeding for a book published in 2011 about Shakur’s murder in Las Vegas and the murder six months later of rival rap icon Christopher Wallace in Los Angeles. Wallace Notorious BIGOr Biggie Smalls.
“Those boxes should not be allowed,” Davis said of police and prosecutors examining the records as possible evidence ahead of the trial scheduled for Nov. 4.
“Greg Kaeding had these boxes in his attic for 15 years and did all his television interviews with them,” Davis said. “He broke the proper contracts, he broke the law, he did everything.”
Davis also accused prosecutors Mark DiGiacomo and Binu Pallar of “denigrating my family in this case.”
“Not only are they ugly on the outside, they’re ugly on the inside,” Davis said. “These are the two guys here.”
DiGiacomo and Parral did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Davis, who led a street gang in his hometown of Compton, California, wrote in his 2019 tell-all memoir that he was promised immunity from prosecution when he told Los Angeles authorities what he knew about the shootings of Shakur and Wallace.
No arrests have been made in the Wallace case. Davis is the only person charged in Shakur’s murder.
Kaeding said in a phone call Tuesday that he turned over the investigative records to Las Vegas police earlier this year, months after Davis was charged and arrested at his home in suburban Henderson, Nev. He said no laws were broken and that he did not illegally obtain or store any of the materials.
“I don’t lose sleep over the fact that a confessed killer is facing off against me for leaking information about his involvement in a murder case,” Kaeding said. “None of his statements reveal any new information. It’s well known. It was based on investigative material from my time with the LAPD.”
Nevada law prohibits convicted murderers from profiting from their crimes, but Arnold said that since Davis had not been convicted, Davis and record executive Cash “Whack 100” Jones, who was soliciting the murder, could not profit from the crimes. Davis’ bail was set at $750,000.They plan to make a profit by selling the story of Davis’ life.
Jones has managed artists such as Jonathan “Blueface” Porter and Jason “The Game” Taylor. Testimony in June He said he wanted to raise funds for Davis because he was battling cancer and “has always been a monumental figure in our community, especially our urban community.”
Arnold said Tuesday that Davis’ story is of great interest to the public, with or without mention of Shakur’s murder. He called his client “one of the most notorious gang leaders in Southern California” and “the Godfather of Compton.”
His lawyer declined to comment after the court hearing.
judge Decided on June 26th She said she was not convinced that Davis and Jones did not intend to profit from the transactions, and could not determine whether Jones was acting as a “middleman” for another, unnamed person.
Parral told the court that the judge could impose any conditions deemed necessary to ensure the defendant would return to court for trial. If Davis was allowed to send “gifts” in exchange for his release, he would have no incentive to comply with court orders or show up for trial, prosecutors said.
Davis is He pleaded not guilty He was charged with first-degree murder, which carries a possible life sentence if convicted. The only surviving person Nearly 28 years ago, a man in a car opened fire on another vehicle, killing Shakur and wounding rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight.
Authorities allege the shooting stemmed from a dispute between East Coast members of the Bloods gang and West Coast members of the Crips gang, including Davis. Dominance in music genres At the time it was known as “gangsta rap.”
Knight, now 59, 28 years In California prison Murder of a Compton businessman In 2015, in a vehicle.