Proffer Agreement Breach Leads to Arrest of Keefe D in Tupac Shakur Murder Case

For almost 30 years, nobody was arrested for the murder of the famous rapper Tupac Shakur, even though a gang member from Los Angeles kept saying he was involved, and the police seemed to know who did it. But all this time, police in Las Vegas were quietly digging deeper into the case, according to an investigative report done by ABC News.

In 2023, things heated up when police searched a house near Las Vegas and then arrested Duane “Keffe D” Davis one morning in September. Davis, known to be involved with the South Side Crips gang, was accused of being the mastermind behind Tupac’s murder, even though he didn’t actually shoot him.

Years ago, Davis had already told police his side of the story, claiming his role in Tupac’s death. He even talked about it in his book published in 2019. The night Tupac was shot, there was a Mike Tyson boxing match in Vegas, and both Tupac and his crew, as well as Davis and his gang, were in town. A fight broke out between them, which led to the tragic drive-by shooting later that night. The police have pointed to Davis’s own words over the years as evidence against him. But, there’s been some drama between the Vegas and Los Angeles police departments over how the investigation was handled, especially regarding earlier confessions Davis made that were supposed to be kept secret from court use.

Davis’s arrest years later came after he publicly spoke about the incident in interviews and a book, which made police take a closer look at him again. Back in 2008, Keefe D had a proffer session.

A proffer session, often called a “queen for a day” agreement, allows a suspect to give information to prosecutors under a sort of temporary immunity. This means what they say can’t be directly used against them in court. In 2008, Davis had such a session with detectives on a joint federal-LA task force. During this session, he confessed his involvement in Tupac Shakur’s murder. However, this confession came with a catch: because of the proffer agreement, his admission couldn’t be used in court. This situation put the Las Vegas police in a tough spot when they learned about Davis’s confession. They worried that if they tried to use his confession from either the proffer session or their own interview against him in court, Davis might argue that he was protected by the proffer’s immunity, even though Las Vegas police weren’t part of that agreement. If a judge agreed with Davis, it could ruin any chance of prosecuting him based on those statements.This led to a bit of a stand-off between the Las Vegas and Los Angeles police departments. The Vegas team was frustrated because they felt left out of the loop and hampered in their efforts to move forward with the case. Meanwhile, the LA team believed they needed to keep their investigation under wraps to make the best use of Davis as an informant.

Davis’s lawyer argues that all the evidence against him comes from Davis’s own stories, which were told to make money, and insists that Davis is innocent. Meanwhile, the police believe they’ve finally made progress in a case that’s been unsolved for too long, showing their dedication to solving it.