The multi-year investigations into the deaths of two of rap music’s most prominent figures intersected when a probe into the 1997 killing of Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B.I.G., unexpectedly shifted focus toward the 1996 slaying of Tupac Shakur, according to testimony presented in court.
Investigation into Biggie Smalls Killing Led to Tupac Shakur Breakthrough
In 2008, a joint Los Angeles Police Department and federal task force initially brought in former Compton gang member Duane “Keffe D” Davis to question him about a car he owned that resembled a vehicle used in Wallace’s drive-by shooting in Los Angeles outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard. According to former LAPD homicide detective Daryn Dupree, investigators leveraged potential charges against Davis for selling a large quantity of PCP out of his home—which exposed him to a potential life sentence—to force his cooperation under a proffer agreement.
While discussing the Wallace case, Davis indicated that he knew about the Smalls shooting before stating, we did the other one,
which immediately redirected investigators toward the Shakur case. Dupree testified that detectives never asked Davis any questions about Tupac before he volunteered the information. Davis was subsequently signed up as a confidential informant in March 2009.
Jurors Hear 2008 Audio Detailing Shakur Shooting
Decades after Shakur was gunned down off the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996, jurors in a Las Vegas courtroom listened to the recorded 2008 police interviews. In the audio recordings, Davis detailed how his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, fired the fatal shots.
Prosecutors assert the killing was retaliation for an earlier altercation at the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson fight, where Shakur’s entourage attacked Anderson. At the time of the 2008 interview, Anderson had been dead for a decade.
Defense Challenges Credibility of Defendant’s Statements
Now 63 years old, Duane Davis is the only person charged with Shakur’s murder and has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors are relying heavily on Davis’ recorded police interviews, podcast appearances, and his 2019 co-authored memoir, Compton Street Legend,
arguing that his subsequent public statements voided any confidentiality or proffer agreements he initially made with law enforcement.
Defense attorney Michael Sanft has pushed back against the state’s case, telling jurors there is no physical evidence linking his client to the shooting. In an unusual defense strategy, Sanft argued that Davis was “full of crap” and that his memoir was merely a work of fiction written for financial gain while his client was not even in Las Vegas, contending that previous investigators correctly recognized his tales lacked credibility.
