Tupac: Day 10 - Keffe D Verdict

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1:46Hello and welcome back to the Tupac Murder Trial from Fame Under Fire from BBC Sounds with me, Anushka Matanda-Dawati. We had closing arguments today and I thought that was going to be it, but we do have a verdict and it is guilty for the defendant, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis murder in the first degree with deadly weapon supplement. Now, let me tell you, this deliberation was about two and a bit hours. They went out, they had to have some lunch because we went through lunch with closing arguments. And then right before the end of the day, they said that the jury had a verdict. We all filed back in.

2:15They elected a full person. The full person gave the note to the bailiff. The bailiff goes over and gives it to the judge and they read it out and it was guilty. Will the defendant and his attorneys please stand to and the perceived verdict. And the clerk will now read the verdict. District Court, Clark County, Nevada, State of Nevada v. Dwayne Keith Davis, case number C23377407-1, Department 2. The verdict reads as follows. We, the jury in the above-entitled case, find the defendant, Dwayne Keith Davis, as follows. Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon. Guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.

2:48Date of this 31st date of August 2026. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is this your verdict as read? So say you want, so say you are. Yes. There wasn't much of a reaction from Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. His face didn't really move that much. There wasn't much of a reaction from his son either, but it was a completely different story on the other side of the room where Tupac's family were. And if you needed, for everybody saying, why are we having this trial now? Why after 30 years, let it go? Please go and speak to somebody. Please go and speak to a family or a friend group who's lost somebody and been left with unanswered questions.

3:21And then times that by a million when it's happening on a global scale with conspiracy theories coming from left, right and center. Nothing brought into focus or clarity more what it has been like for this family than their reaction today. It was extremely emotional. It was extremely positive, though. They were embracing the prosecution. Giacomo and Tupac's sister were hugging. We were actually all ushered out so they could have that moment together. But you really saw that this just hasn't been the most notorious cold case in the United States or the most notorious cold case in Las Vegas. This has been a family waiting for justice.

3:52And those 12 everyday Americans delivered that justice today and they found the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree.

4:02Now, the closing arguments were quite long. It wasn't a 20 to 30 minute hit from the prosecution or the defense. And it followed a lot of the same narratives that we were expecting, the ones that they gave us in opening statements, the ones they've been telling us throughout the trial. So the prosecution said this is a slam dunk. There is absolutely no defense against murder in this case. You have heard it out of the mouth of the defendant himself. You have heard him say the same story since 1998, 1999, 2008, 2009, 2017 on BET and 2019 in his book. And even if he claims he didn't write the book himself, he went on podcasts and public appearances and testified to the veracity of that book.

4:40We have that clip from Vlad TV that was played again. We actually watched a lot of clips in closing arguments throughout the trial, which you don't usually get. The prosecution began by repeating a lot of the same narratives we've heard from them throughout this trial, that Dwayne Kifidi Davis was hunting Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight in retaliation for the beating of his nephew Orlando Anderson at the MGM. They said there was absolutely no doubt that this is a case about gang retaliation and revenge. They talk about how angry he was, how we still hear that anger to this day in those 2023 phone jail calls that we heard.

5:11It was nothing new, really. It was just weaving together the story that they've been telling the jury over these past three weeks. But one of the most interesting things that they kept repeating, which is important for the jury, because the jury have a difficult task. They have to take everything that they've heard and then they have to deliberate, but they have to do it within the bounds of the law, within the bounds of the jury instructions. So there were over 50 jury instructions read out. So you can take into account this, but you can't take into account that. And one of the ones that the prosecution kept repeating was a defendant's statement, if believed, need not be further corroborated by the evidence.

5:45And of course, that is particularly poignant in this case because the prosecution have told us what makes this case remarkable is that there are direct admissions, direct and repeated admissions of guilt from the defendant, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. And they are saying to the jurors, if you 12 American everyday jurors with your collective wisdom and experience believe what Dwayne Keefe D. is saying in 2008, in 2009, in 2017, in his book in 2019, then you do not need other material facts to corroborate what he's saying. you do not need other witnesses and we know this is directly targeting the defense that Sam has been presenting from the beginning which is that there are absolutely no facts that place the defendant in Las Vegas on the 7th of September there are absolutely no facts that place him in that Cadillac and the prosecution was saying from the beginning straight out the gate we don't need other facts we've got him saying it and if you believe it that is all you need within the bounds of the law that is all you need and they went on to bring up multiple different examples of why it should be believed that Dwayne Keefe Davis was believed at the time that he's made these statements.

6:45Because if you remember, Samt has previously poked at the prosecution strategy saying, if he said all this stuff in 2008, why didn't they just arrest him then? Clearly, they didn't believe him. Quote, they thought he was talking a lot of crap. And they said, look, this is what happened with the proffer agreement in 2008. He had a drug trafficking case built up against him that would have landed him in jail for the rest of his life. And we said, if you engage with us meaningfully about the death of the notorious B.I.G., which then ultimately ended up engaging meaningfully about the death of Tupac Shakur, another hip-hop star.

7:14We will not prosecute this case. You will not go to prison for the rest of your life as long as we believe what you're saying to be true. The prosecution then brought this up today and said he had a drug trafficking case that meant life in prison and he did not serve a single day of that. That is how much they believed he was telling the truth in those 2008 profit interviews. At one point they said we have allowed him to live in this community, a known murderer live in this community because we were not able to prosecute him based on what he said because of that proffer agreement, because of how unbreakable, unshakable it is until they determine, and the judge determined in this case, that it was broken in 2019 when he penned his own book or someone else wrote the book and then he testified to the veracity of the book.

7:56He broke the agreement in 2019 and that is what made all of this eligible for trial. But we believed him in 2008. Dupree believed him in 2008. The men in the room with him. The FBI, the LAPD, the LA Sheriff's Office, the Metro, Las Vegas Metro, believed what he was saying. And that story, they say, hasn't changed. And this was another through line through the prosecution's closing arguments today. He has never denied being in Las Vegas. The story of who was in the car has never changed. The configuration of where they were sat has never changed. The idea that he put the gun in the back has never changed.

8:30All of these details have stayed the same. And there is a reason for that, they say, because it is the truth and when it came to telling the truth when the truth was going to help him this is what they said when the truth was going to help him in 2008 he told the truth and they further picked apart the idea that he would have fabricated this whole story by saying why would he fabricate a story that still holds him criminally liable for the death of Tupac Shakur furthermore he was being asked originally about the death of the notorious B.I.G. why wouldn't he just fabricate a story about that why wouldn't he just make up saying oh yeah I saw who did the shooting I was in the garage but I saw them run out with a gun.

9:03Why would he fabricate this very detailed account of what took place in Las Vegas with multiple, they say, corroborated elements to the story? The MGM, who was in Las Vegas at the time, the white Cadillac. There are multiple elements of the story that he was getting right that line up with what other people were saying. Why would he fabricate that and then stick to that tale for the next 30 years if it didn't happen? And of course, all roads lead back ultimately to Mob James' testimony. They said, if you need any further evidence that this man was absolutely there, absolutely liable, absolutely in that Cadillac, please go back and listen to Mob James' testimony.

9:41They played a little bit for us today in court. They actually played the cross-examination that Samph did, which was the most explosive part, if you remember, and they said, look, this man came on the stand and he didn't want to snitch on anybody, but ultimately he testified that pretty much everybody and their mama knew who had killed Tupac Amaro Shakur on the 7th of September, 1996. They knew within hours, they knew back in Compton, there was a gang war that started after that. If you need any more proof, he said, Mob James said, I was hunting Orlando Anderson and Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. I knew exactly who I was going for because I knew exactly who was responsible for the death of Tupac.

10:15Everybody did. It was common knowledge. They played a bit of that testimony again today. They use that as saying, look, don't just take it out of the mouth of Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. Take it out the mouth of Mob James as well, who was in an opposing gang, who doesn't like Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. So they played some of that. They played a couple of other clips of Dwayne Keefe D. Davis talking about what he claims to have happened on that night. Very famously, the Vlad TV interview where he owns the book and says, go and get the book. This is the real truth. And that spoke to another one of the jury instructions that they were given, which is that an admission adopted is also an admission by Keefe D.

10:50So even if he didn't write it because he adopted the admission as the truth, because he said publicly, this is a truthful admission. An admission adopted by the defendant is just as good, just as powerful within the bounds of the law as if he had directly admitted it out of his own mouth. If he had written the book, videotaped himself right in the book and said, this is all my work, because he took that book and he said, this is the truth, go and buy it. You're getting the real truth from me. It holds the same weight within the bounds of the law, within the bounds of the jury instructions that they were given.

11:20And ultimately the prosecution said, SAMFT, the lead counsel for the defense. He has put you on a hunt for corroboration. He has repeatedly told you, you need to have material facts that back up what Dwayne Keefe D. Davis is saying in these interviews. And they're saying that is ultimately not the case. You absolutely do not need that. And you can find that the defendant's word is the weightiest thing there's going to be. And the defendant's word is a directed mission that stands as evidence. So then we moved on to the defense. Once again, this is nothing new. We have heard these arguments before.

11:51Sam's overarching theme is there is no evidence. And he went even further. He said, we can't even place Orlando Anderson in that white Cadillac. We don't even know if the three other men that were in the car were even in Vegas at the time. The only person we know was in Vegas at the time was Orlando Anderson because he is in that footage in the MGM. He also went on to say, look, this is a story that's riddled with dirty cops, crooked cops, and corrupt institutions. He went on to bring up the 2009 interview. Now, safe from talking about Greg Kading, which he calls a crooked cop all the time, He spoke about the fact that Dwayne Keefe D.

12:23Davis was advised not to have his own lawyer, Edie Fall, present in the 2009 interviews. And he says, how can that not be a coerced statement? He wasn't read his constitutional rights. He wasn't informed that he has the right to pick his own attorney. He was told that his attorney was a crooked attorney. He couldn't be trusted. And he had an attorney picked for him by Greg Kading, who ultimately went on to steal the Tupac Shakur files and the Biggie Smalls files. And Sam's idea here is if he's been coerced into making those statements, you need to disregard those statements. And on the same theme of crooked institutions, he says throughout the prosecution of this case, throughout the investigation of the death, the murder of Tupac Shakur, documents have been stolen.

13:03Things have been leaked. You cannot trust the police within their own organizations. And his point was we don't know how much information was actually out there to the public at the time that Dwayne Kifidi Davis could have come across and then repeated in police interviews. Ultimately, he's saying my client is a liar. He's been saying this since day one, so we kind of knew this was going to underscore the entire closing argument. But another theme that came up before, this did come up during trial, was that if there was a war in Compton, if Mob James and everybody else knew exactly who was responsible for the death for the murder of Tupac Shakur, why weren't any of the four men in that car victims of that bloody violent war that they've testified to?

13:38In fact, nobody, nobody in that car died at the hands of the Bloods. Nobody was murdered as retribution for the death for the murder of Tupac Shakur. And he was pointing to that as evidence, saying if everybody knew and nobody targeted them, and you've testified that Compton is a relatively small area where they all know each other, they couldn't possibly have been the people who did this. He also opened up the questions about Suge Knight again. Could Suge Knight have been responsible? Was Reggie Wright Jr. responsible? Reggie Wright Jr. downgraded the security of Tupac Shakur, he alleges. He said he should have had more security with him because Hit Him Up had just come out.

14:11And it was an extremely tense time where they were after him. And yet he didn't have that security with him. Why is that? Reggie Wright Jr. he said before his handprints are all over this. He was proposing other avenues of investigation not to say to the jury third party guilt this person did it but to say have these avenues been investigated to the full out extent just like they investigated Dwayne Keefe D Davis and that is trying to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. Ultimately he ended by trying to discredit everything that was inside that book. Remember the book is the turning point where they are able to bring in all of Dwayne Keefe D Davis's admissions because of that 2019 Compton street legend and he says his name isn't even spelt correctly on the front of the book.

14:50If you look at the 2023 search warrant, if you look at the nighttime raid of his house, you can see that he has a jacket within his house with his name spelt correctly on it and it's actually Keithy, not Keithy. And that would have been the first thing Sam said that he noticed on the front of the book that his name was spelt incorrectly. That's how little this man had to do with this publication. That's how much you should disregard it. But ultimately we know that that's not what the jury did. Now, there was a rebuttal from the prosecution where they ultimately stood up and said, we have known that this man did this all these years and we have been waiting to prosecute him.

15:23He has gone on interviews and said, I beat the streets, I beat the police. And then Giacomo said, and now he wants to beat the 12 of you. Please come back and find a guilty verdict in this case after 30 years and get some justice. To suggest now that there is no evidence of his guilt. The defendant said on one of those social media clips when you watch them, he literally says, I beat the streets, I beat the feds, and I beat cancer. And now he's trying to beat the 12 of you. That's what's going on here. Mr. Davis is attempting to escape responsibility for a crime everybody knows he committed even him and he admits to it for seven eight times over the course of 30 years and there's no evidence contradicting that fact end of the day hold him accountable for the crime he committed thank you and there were points when Giacomo sounded you know quite frustrated very passionate during the rebuttal saying for god's sake this guy was scrapbooking the murders he'd completed in his house they're pointing to the evidence they found in those 2023 nighttime raids, saying, is it any clearer than this?

16:39The thing that he was so frustrated about throughout this entire process was the fact that Greg Kading had monetized the book Murder Rab and made money off of what Dwayne Keefe D. Davis thought was his story. And therefore, he wanted to do the same. He wasn't upset about the murder of Tupac Shakur. He repeatedly said he was upset about what it did to his life. This man is not remorseful, he was saying. This man is somebody who was trying to profit off this story, but you do not get to profit of murder. And that was the ending line that he gave to the jury. And then they went away for deliberations.

17:08They didn't go away for very long because of course we know they've come back with a guilty verdict. Now that's guilty, first degree murder with a deadly weapons supply, but the gang enhancement has been dropped voluntarily by the prosecution. They said, although they have a witness who could definitely prove that this murder happened in furtherance of gang activity, it's just the logistics are too difficult to get him here. We've already got a guilty verdict, so we're going to voluntarily drop it. Clearly the family were not upset about this because it was a real moment of release at the end of that trial where they were hugging and embracing the prosecution.

17:38It was very emotional and after 30 years there is some justice in this case. But that's it for this episode of the Tupac Murder Trial from Fame of the Fire from BBC Sounds with me, Anushka Matandadavdi. We're not going anywhere. We have full analysis episodes coming. Sean will be coming back. We'll be answering all your questions so make sure you subscribe and turn on your push notifications so you never miss a thing.

18:02Brian Brendan Wright, known as The Milkman, was the UK's biggest cocaine trafficker in the 1990s. There weren't many groups in the UK that could access direct into the Colombian market. When you think of a narco-trafficker, you're thinking cold, calculating, likely violent. How did The Milkman build a transatlantic cocaine empire? We just sat down for lunch, and there's Britain's most wanted bloke. Gangster, the story of the milkman Why was he called the milkman? Supposedly because he always delivers Listen first on BBC Sounds

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