Defense rests in Tupac Shakur murder trial, closing arguments set for Monday
The defense rested Thursday in the Las Vegas murder trial of Duane Davis. Closing arguments in the nearly 28-year-old case are scheduled for Monday morning.
Defense wraps case in Tupac Shakur killing; jury to hear closing arguments Monday
Courthouse News Service reports that defense attorney Michael Sanft rested his case Thursday afternoon in the Las Vegas murder trial of Duane Davis, the man prosecutors say was inside the white Cadillac from which Tupac Shakur was shot on Sept. 7, 1996.
Closing arguments are expected Monday morning.
Sanft called three former Las Vegas police officers to the stand Thursday, including retired homicide detective Dan Long, whose investigation into Shakur's death stretched across more than a decade and produced a string of dead ends.
Long testified that in 2004 he traveled to Compton, California, as part of the investigation and happened to spot Deandre "Dre" Smith — a man witnesses have said was in the Cadillac with Davis, Orlando Anderson and another person the night of the shooting. Long tried to speak with him.
"He said, 'F you and F off,'" Long told the court. Without jurisdiction or legal cause to detain Smith, Long walked away. Smith died later that year.
Prosecutors say Davis, 63, is now the only surviving occupant of that vehicle.
Long described years of investigative work that yielded little. Los Angeles authorities unearthed a gun from a backyard they believed might be the murder weapon; Long had it transported to Las Vegas for ballistics testing. No match was made. "There were thousands of guns that were tested," he said. He also walked along a highway shoulder following an anonymous tip that someone had discarded the weapon there. It has never been found.
In 2009, Long traveled again to Los Angeles after being told Davis — then facing narcotics charges — was willing to trade information about the Shakur shooting for a reduced sentence. Long said he planned to arrest Davis upon returning to Las Vegas and submitted the matter to the District Attorney's Office.
"And they told me they were not going to go forward with prosecution at that time," Long said, without elaborating on the reasons. He also said he had been unaware that Davis had spoken with authorities years earlier and provided a proffer — sharing details of the shooting under an agreement that the information would not be used to charge him.
Under cross-examination, Sanft asked Long whether he had independently verified that Davis was inside the Cadillac the night of the shooting.
"By Mr. Davis telling me he was in the white Cadillac the night of the murder," Long replied.
Sanft has argued throughout the trial that prosecutors cannot prove his client was in Las Vegas that night and that Davis embellished his accounts of the events. Prosecutors have leaned heavily on Davis's own statements — made to law enforcement, documentary filmmakers and in his book "Compton Street Legend" — in which he places himself in the vehicle.
Sanft also called two former officers assigned to patrol the area around Marion "Suge" Knight's home that evening. Knight, the former CEO of Death Row Records, was hosting a gathering after a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand. One officer testified that he saw Knight and Shakur arrive with several other vehicles around 10:15 p.m. and that the group departed approximately 30 minutes later.
The shooting occurred shortly after 11 p.m.
Anderson — Davis's nephew and the man witnesses say was attacked in a gang-related confrontation hours before the shooting — later died of gunshot wounds at the car wash Long visited during his Compton tour. Prosecutors have argued that attack set in motion the chain of events that ended with Shakur being shot; he died six days later.
Source: Courthouse News Service