LAS VEGAS — Lawyers for the man accused of killing rap icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 are pushing to suppress evidence obtained in what they claim was an “illegal overnight search.”
Las Vegas criminal defense attorneys Robert Draskovich and William Brown filed a motion this week on behalf of their client Dwayne “Keffe D” Davis, who was accused of drive-by shooting iconic rapper from the Las Vegas Strip.
Davis' lawyers argue that the judge relied on a “misleading portrait” of Davis as a dangerous drug dealer to authorize the execution of a search warrant at night, which should only be done in exceptional circumstances, such as if there is a risk that evidence will disappear if officers wait until morning.
In fact, Davis, former gang leader of Southern California, left the drug trade in 2008 and began doing inspection work at oil refineries, his lawyers say. He was a 60-year-old retired cancer survivor with adult children and grandchildren and had lived with his wife in Henderson, a city near Las Vegas, for nine years at the time the warrant was executed.
“The court was not told anything about this,” his lawyers wrote in the motion. “As a result, the court authorized an overnight search based on a portrait of Davis that bore little resemblance to reality—in other words, a clearly flawed factual determination.”
The Las Vegas Police Department, which conducted the search and seized Davis' electronic devices, “suspected marijuana” and photo jars, declined to comment Friday, citing the ongoing litigation. During the search, police said that executing the warrant under cover of darkness would allow officers to surround and secure the home, and that if Davis barricaded himself, the darkness would allow officers to evacuate nearby homes with the least impact on residents.
Davis was arrested in September 2023. pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and sought release shortly after his arrest.
His lawyers argue that Davis' arrest stems from false public statements Davis made in which he claimed to be in the white Cadillac used to shoot Shakur. They say he never provided details that firmly established his presence in the car, and that it was helpful for him to say he was present. He dodged drug charges by telling the story in a proposal agreement and made money by repeating it in documentaries and his 2019 book, his lawyers said.
He sought to fire his murder charges went to the Nevada Supreme Court, but his petition was denied in November.
“Think of it this way: Shakur’s assassination was essentially the JFK assassination of the entertainment world—endlessly analyzed, mythologized, monetized—so it’s not hard to see why someone in Davis’ position would mistakenly place himself at the center of it all for personal gain,” his lawyers wrote.
