LAS VEGAS– Sparks flew in the courtroom Tuesday as a Nevada judge reprimanded a defense attorney and an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader lashed out against prosecutors during his renewed bid to be released from prison and placed under house arrest ahead of his trial in the murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny, who last month rejected Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ bid to have a hip-hop figure pay $112,500 to obtain Davis’ $750,000 bond, hours later issued a terse written issued an order giving Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, one week to provide more documentation about the source of the money.
The judge said she wanted to “assuage the court’s concerns” that music director Cash “Wack 100” Jones “was acting as a frontman or intermediary for another entity or individual.”
In court, Kierny accused Arnold of influencing media coverage of the case surrounding one of hip-hop music’s most enduring mysteries.
“It seems like your plan, your end goal here, is to make some kind of show for the press of this trial,” Kierny said.
“That’s not my end goal here, your honor,” Arnold responded. “My end goal is to win the trial. If they want to follow me with cameras, they can do that.”
Arnold was recently featured in a British tabloid reporting that he was making offers for a film crew to follow him as he worked on Davis’ behalf. The article quoted Arnold calling Shakur’s death a “legacy” lawsuit and invoking the memory of Johnnie Cochran, an attorney for OJ Simpson during his 1995 trial in Los Angeles. Cochran, who died in 2005, famously showed jurors a glove and said, “If it doesn’t fit, acquit.”
Davis has been held in a Las Vegas jail since his arrest last September. He was handcuffed and complained that police and prosecutors studied material compiled by a former Los Angeles detective, Greg Kading, for a 2011 book about the murders of Shakur in Las Vegas and rival rap icon Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious BIG or Biggie Smalls.
“Those boxes should not be allowed,” Davis said of files now being examined by police and prosecutors for possible evidence ahead of his trial, scheduled for Nov. 4.
“Mr. Greg Kading had those boxes in the attic of his house for 15 years, doing all kinds of TV interviews,” Davis said. “He violated a good agreement, and he violated the law, all kinds of things.”
Davis also accused the accusers, Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal, of “screwing my family into this.”
“Not only are they ugly on the outside, they’re ugly on the inside,” Davis said. “These two guys right here.”
DiGiacomo and Palal did not later respond to requests for comment.
Davis said in his own 2019 memoir — about leading a street gang in his hometown of Compton, California — that he was promised immunity from prosecution when he told authorities in Los Angeles what he knew about the shootings of Shakur and Wallace.
No arrests were ever made in the Wallace case. Davis is the only person ever charged with Shakur’s murder.
Kading said by phone Tuesday that he turned over his investigative data to Las Vegas police this year — several months after Davis was charged and arrested at his home in suburban Henderson, Nevada. Kading said he broke no laws and that none of the material was obtained or retained illegally.
“I don’t lose sleep over a known murderer disagreeing with me for sharing information about his involvement in a murder,” Kading said. “Nothing he said reveals any new information. It is known. It was based on research sources from when I was in the LAPD.”
Nevada law prohibits convicted murderers from profiting from their crime. But Arnold argued that since Davis has not been convicted, it did not matter whether Davis and Jones, a record executive who wanted to underwrite Davis’ $750,000 bond, intended to profit from the sale of Davis’ life story.
Jones, who has managed artists such as Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, testified in June that he wanted to commit money to Davis because Davis was battling cancer and “had always been a monumental person in our community.” . especially the urban community.”
Arnold characterized Davis’ story Tuesday as intensely interesting to the public, with or without mention of Shakur’s murder. He called his client “one of the most notorious gang leaders in all of Southern California” and “the godfather of Compton.”
The lawyer declined to comment after the court hearing.
The judge decided on June 26 that she was not convinced that Davis and Jones did not intend to make a profit. She also said she could not determine whether Jones was acting as an “intermediary” on behalf of another unnamed person.
Palal said in court that a judge can impose any condition deemed necessary to ensure that a suspect returns to court for trial. If Davis is allowed to post a “gift” for release, he would have no incentive to comply with court orders or appear in court, the prosecutor said.
Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison. He and prosecutors say he is the only living person who was in a car from which shots were fired into another car nearly 28 years ago, killing Shakur and wounding rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight.
Authorities allege the shooting stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang and West Coast parts of a Crips gang, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”
Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California prison for killing a Compton businessman with a vehicle in 2015.
