Judge rejects effort to bail out Tupac murder suspect
A judge on Wednesday rejected the attempt to get the man accused of orchestrating rapper Tupac Shakur’s killing out of jail.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 61, who has been indicted on a murder charge in the 1996 slaying, is being held at the Clark County Detention Center on $750,000 bail. Last week, court documents indicated that Davis had found a bond company, E-Bail, that was willing to post bond.
After reviewing bank records of Cash Jones, the man who was offering to pay Davis’ $112,500 bond premium, and holding a hearing focused on the source of the money, District Judge Carli Kierny said she was refusing Davis’ request to let Jones pay the premium.
Carl Arnold, Davis’ attorney, said in a Thursday statement that he was disappointed by the judge’s decision and planned to file a motion for reconsideration.
At a source hearing Tuesday, Kierny said that she wanted to ensure that the bond was not posted with proceeds from talking about the slaying of Shakur.
Jones testified that he manages artists and that the money for the bond premium came from his entertainment business.
But prosecutors presented a recording of a jail visit between Davis and his wife in which they said Davis suggested Jones was a middle man for someone who owned a movie company.
“I’m left with more questions than answers,” Kierny said at the end of the hearing. She declined to release Davis then, but said she would issue a final decision after looking at Jones’ bank records.
In a minute order released Wednesday, Kierny said she had inspected the bank records Jones provided to the court. They were “insufficient” to show that the bond premium came from a legitimate source, she said. They did not show the actual source of many large deposits and the ending balance in May was not high enough to cover the bail.
Kierny said in the order that Davis’ statements about Jones being a front or middle man were also a factor in her decision.
“Ultimately, the hearing did nothing to assuage the Court’s concerns that Mr. Davis paid his bond by trading on his alleged involvement in Mr. Shakur’s death,” she said.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
