The man accused of orchestrating the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur is asking a judge to dismiss his case over the delay in prosecution and past immunity agreements, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 61, has remained in custody since his arrest on Sept. 29, 2023. In January 2024, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny set Davis’ bail at $750,000. Davis refers to himself as “Keffe D”, though he is sometimes referred to as “Keefe D” or “Keefy D.” Prosecutors spell his name as “Keffe D.”

Davis has publicly said he was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car, which pulled up side-by-side with Shakur’s, before the September 1996 shooting near the Las Vegas Strip. Marion “Suge” Knight, the then-head of Death Row Records, was driving the car with Shakur sitting in the passenger seat. Knight was injured in the shooting. Shakur died from his injuries several days later.

In June 2024, Kierny denied releasing Davis from jail pending trial after another man, Cash Jones, posted his bond. Jones, an entertainment manager who also goes by the name “Wack 100,” posted 15% of Davis’ $750,000 bail, the amount required to post a bond with the aid of a bail bond company.

In a filing Monday, Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, said his client entered into several proffer agreements with federal and local officials regarding information about Shakur’s murder. Davis again entered a similar agreement during a Los Angeles Police Department interview, documents said.

During an interview with Las Vegas police in 2009, Davis said “Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs solicited Mr. Davis to kill [Knight] and [Shakur] for $1 million,” documents said. During the interview, Davis said he passed the murder weapon to a person in the back seat. Davis said he never received the money. A representative from Combs previously denied the claim.

The attorneys add prosecutors waited more than a decade after that interview to file charges and that they have no other corroborating evidence.

Prosecutors have said they confirmed Davis’ wife made a hotel reservation in her name at the time of the shooting.

Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, previously told the 8 News Now Investigators that his client was lying when making public statements about Shakur’s murder and that Davis should not be trusted.

As part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into the death of Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, officials offered Davis a proffer, which Davis believed gave him immunity in the Las Vegas case. In 2009, Davis became a confidential informant for a task force created to investigate Wallace’s death, prosecutors said.

“[Davis] denied any involvement in that murder, however, volunteered his knowledge about the murder of Tupac Shakur,” documents said. “Thereafter, on Dec. 18, 2008, he provided a recorded version of events similar to his other re-countings of the murder, all of which was consistent with the known evidence from the early investigation.”

“We are steadfast in our commitment to justice and the rule of law,” Arnold said in a statement Monday. “The prosecution has failed to justify a decades-long delay that has irreversibly prejudiced my client. Moreover, the failure to honor immunity agreements undermines the criminal justice system’s integrity and seriously questions this prosecution. We are confident the court will see the merits of our arguments.”

Davis also provided an LVMPD homicide detective a statement in 2009, prosecutors said, where he “attempted to elude responsibility for the murder of Shakur.” During the interview, Davis admitted to being in Las Vegas at the time of the Tyson fight, prosecutors said.

There is no statute of limitations for filing murder charges in Nevada. S: 8 News