Judge considers whether former gang leader arrested for murder of Tupac Shakur receives house arrest on $750,000 bail

LAS VEGAS – A Nevada judge said Tuesday that she was not immediately convinced of the legality of an effort by a hip-hop music figure to post a $750,000 bond to release a former Los Angeles-area gang leader from prison. Angeles before his murder trial in the 1996 slaying of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny expressed doubts after hearing arguments about granting Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ release to house arrest with electronic monitoring, but said she would review financial records presented by his benefactor – Cash Jones, manager of hip-hop artists such as Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor.

The judge promised to publish a brief description of her decision in the court records. She didn’t say when.

Davis’ attorney, Carl Arnold, told reporters outside the courtroom that he expected a ruling later Tuesday. Prosecutors Binu Palal and Marc DiGiacomo declined to comment.

Jones, who goes by the nickname “Wack 100,” gave sworn testimony via Internet video link from an unspecified location in California. Under questioning from Arnold, Jones said he paid 15 percent of the bail amount, or $112,500, as “a gift” from his business accounts to secure Davis’ release.

“I know him in passing,” Jones said of Davis, a 61-year-old self-described head of a Crips gang sect in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton and who has been held at the Clark County Detention Center since his arrest last September. . Davis and his lawyers said he is not acting appropriately medical care in prison following treatment before his arrest for colon cancer.

“I know his son,” Jones said of Davis. “We talked a few times. I know he is having health problems.”

“He has always been a monumental person in our community,” Jones added during Palal’s questioning. “Especially the urban community.”

Asked by the prosecutor whether he had any contract or financial arrangement with Davis for a television or film deal based on Davis’ self-described gang life and role in Shakur’s murder, Jones twice said, “Not yet.”

Nevada has a law sometimes called the “murderer statute” that prohibits convicted murderers from profiting from their crimes. Prison visits and phone calls are also routinely recorded.

The prosecutor played clips from a VladTV social media interview in which Jones told his interviewer that he would bail Davis out of jail “in exchange for a deal to do a series about Mr. Davis’ life.” Palal asked Jones to explain.

“That’s what I told Vlad,” Jones responded, noting that he was paid for the interview to attract viewers. “There’s nothing about Vlad, nothing about YouTube, that says you have to be truthful.”

Palal also played a recording of a prison phone call in which Jones describes to Davis a plan to produce “30 to 40 episodes” of a television show based on his life story.

“We are talking about business. I’m telling you what my idea is,” says Jones. “You gotta remember, bro, this (expletive) can set you up for the rest of your life.”

Palal told the judge that Jones intended to profit from Davis’ story.

“Mr. Davis is benefiting from retelling his story about Mr. Shakur’s murder. As a result, Mr. Jones, in order to benefit from this, is paying the bail bond company,” the prosecutor said. “Although it is complicated, it is It is clear that a fraud is being committed in this court. One way or another…it is an illegal benefit to profit from this crime.”

The judge ended the 45-minute hearing by saying she was “left with more questions than answers.” But she agreed to review Jones’ financial records.

Davis sought release shortly after his death. arrest last September made him the only person accused of a crime in a murder that for 27 years attracted intense interest and speculation.

Davis told Kierny in court in February that supporters were “hesitant to come here and help me with bail because of the media and the circus that’s going on.”

Prosecutors allege that the shooting that killed Shakur resulted from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods sect of gangs and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for mastery in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap”.

Davis has declared himself innocent to first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled for November 4th. If he is convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

According to police, prosecutors and Davis’ own accounts, he is the only person still alive among four people who were in a white Cadillac from which shots were fired in September 1996, fatally wounding Shakur and running over the rap mogul. Marion “Suge” Knight at an intersection near the Las Vegas Strip. Knight, now 59, is serving 28 years in a California prison for using a vehicle to kill a man in the Los Angeles area in 2015.

Davis has publicly described himself as the orchestrator of the shooting, but not the shooter. A new effort by Las Vegas police to solve the case has led to a search warrant and a break-in last July at his Henderson home.

Prosecutors say they have strong evidence to convict Davis of murder based on his own accounts during multiple police and media interviews since 2008 — and on a 2019 memoir about his life leading a Compton street gang.

In his book, Davis wrote that he was promised immunity from telling Los Angeles authorities what he knew about the fatal shootings of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The great notorious or Biggie Smalls.

Arnold claims Davis told stories so he could make money and that Nevada police and prosecutors are missing key evidence, including the gun, the Cadillac and evidence that Davis was in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.