CHICAGO - MARCH 1994: Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
The man accused of murdering Tupac Shakur in the 1996 shooting has reportedly requested to be released from jail ahead of his upcoming trial.
But prosecutors argue that his freedom could potentially make him a threat to the community and want him to remain behind bars.
According to Radar Online, Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis’ attorneys filed a motion earlier this month requesting their client’s release.
The legal docs requested to place Davis on house arrest until his trial commences in June, and they stated several reasons why the court should grant him his freedom.
His lawyers argued that while Davis admitted to providing the gun used in the drive-by shooting in his 2019 tell-all memoir, ‘Compton Street Legend,’ they contended that the book was written for financial gain and “entertainment purposes.”
They wrote that until his trial, Davis should receive his freedom because the claims he made in his book were never verified. If the court disagreed with their reason, they would alternatively accept that he receives bail set no higher than $100,000.
The motion also listed one of the grounds as Davis not showing signs of being a potential flight risk or a danger to others.
But in response to the court filing, prosecutors at The Clark County District Attorney’s Office emphasized the absurdity of the request, considering the suspect’s well-known former affiliations with the South Side Compton Crips, where they considered him a high-ranking member.
Additionally, they argued that not only did Davis confess to being present at the shooting in his memoir, but he also made remarks related to the murder on several other occasions in the past.
Davis had engaged in several interviews where he explained his role in the shooting and even named other people alleged to have participated in the attack.
He previously sat down for a candid chat on The Art Of Dialogue earlier this year and shared intimate details about the night of Tupac’s death.
During the discussion, David confessed to being in the car with the shooter who killed the rapper and stated that his nephew Orlando Anderson and a man named Big Dre were also in the vehicle that night.
But Davis seemed to become angry when the interviewer asked him to identify Tupac’s shooter, asserting that revealing that information would land him back in jail.
Prosecutors also claimed that since his arrest in September, the suspect had allegedly made several threats towards multiple witnesses expected to testify in the trial next year and that releasing the suspect would ultimately put the lives of those people at risk, per ABC News.
His “credible threats to witnesses demonstrate both a consciousness of guilt” and a “danger to the community,” they wrote.
Based on their response to the motion, prosecutors are asking the judge to keep Davis behind bars until his trial date begins on June 3, 2024.
