Judge rules former crime boss accused of killing Tupac Shakur will not be released on bail | World News

The decision by Clark District Court Judge Carli Kierny came after an attorney for Duane “Keffe D” Davis said he would provide additional financial records to prove that the record executive who offered to pay Davis' $750,000 bail received the money legally. Kierny said she was not convinced after receiving two identical letters that appeared to be from an entertainment company that record executive Cash “Wack 100” Jones said wired him the money as payment for his work.

One letter was signed with a name that had no connection to the company, the judge said, while the second letter contained a misspelled name and a return address associated with a doctor's office.

“I feel like there are attempts to cover things up,” Kierny said.

The hearing took a turn when Davis' attorney, Carl Arnold, said the bail agent Davis appointed had given the entertainment company instructions on how to word the letters and could therefore testify about their legality.

In a scathing response, prosecutor Binu Palal said the bond trader may have committed a serious crime by submitting “a false document before this court”.

“The state is taking this very seriously,” he said. “Be aware that it will not go uninvestigated.”

Palal declined to comment after the hearing. Arnold appeared at the hearing via Zoom, and a spokesman for him did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment.

Davis has been seeking release since shortly after his arrest in September 2023, making him the only person ever charged in one of hip-hop's most intractable mysteries.

Kierny had previously rejected Davis' offer to get Jones to raise $112,500 to secure Davis' release, saying she was not convinced that Davis and Jones were not interested in profiting. She also said she could not determine whether Jones was not acting as a “middleman” on behalf of another, unnamed person.

Nevada has a law, also known as the “Slayer Statute,” that prohibits convicted murderers from profiting from their crimes.

Jones, who has managed artists such as Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, said in June that he wanted to donate money to Davis because Davis is battling cancer and “has always been a significant figure in our community … especially in the urban community.”

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Also on Tuesday, Kierny postponed the start of Davis' trial from Nov. 4 to March 17.

Davis and prosecutors say he is the only living person who was in a car from which shots were fired at another car nearly 28 years ago, killing Shakur and wounding rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight. Prosecutors contend the shootings that killed Shakur in Las Vegas stemmed from a competition between members of an East Coast Bloods gang sect and groups of a West Coast Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a genre then known as “gangsta rap.”

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