Tupac: Day 4 - Diddy $1m Hit Claim

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0:38Hello and welcome back to the Tupac murder trial from Fame Under Fire with me, Anushka Matanda-Dowdy. I'm here in the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Now, since the beginning of this case, the prosecution have been telling us that it is remarkable for one reason, and that is because the defendant, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis, is going to repeatedly admit to being the architect of the shooting that took the life of 25-year-old Tupac Shakur. Now, they're not saying he's going to get up on the stand and tell you he did it, although he can get up on the stand and tell us he did it, if he so pleases.

1:06But they're saying you're going to hear recordings, multiple, multiple recordings, where he recounts what happened on the 7th of September 1996, where he talks about his role in the shooting. And today, we heard hours of those recordings that are a result of that 2008 proffer agreement. Now, if you don't know what a proffer agreement is, please go back to our episodes that we did in the run-up to this trial, because we go through it in great detail. But in short, law enforcement offer you a deal. They say, we've got something over you, in this case, a drug charge. We want you to sit down and cooperate with us.

1:36We want you to give us information on a particular crime. And if we believe that you are being candid, if we believe you are telling the truth, and as long as you do not go and publicly contradict what you told us, we will reduce your time at sentencing, we will drop the charges, and we will not use your words against you later to prosecute you. Now, I'm going to talk about those 2008 recordings, which took up most of today. It is a story about Dwayne Kefidi Davis, Orlando Anderson, Tupac Shakur, and again, Sean Diddy Combs. And we're going to get into why that is in a minute. But I want to talk about the first witness.

2:09Now, his street moniker is Dirt Rock. He took the stand today. He wasn't on for very long. But there are two things about Dirt Rock's testimony that I want you to remember. The first one is that he claims that he was there at the altercation that took place at the Lakewood Mall. Now, if you don't know why I'm bringing up the Lakewood Mall, you have to understand the prosecution's theory. Because they say that there was an altercation at the Lakewood Mall that Orlando Anderson was involved in, and he may have snatched a death row chain from somebody. Then there is the retaliatory attack at the MGM on the night of the Mike Tyson fight, which then leads to the white Cadillac roaming around looking for Tupac Shakur and Suge Nye, and ultimately the shots being fired by Orlando Anderson and the gun being supplied by Dwayne Keefe D.

2:49Davis. That's what the prosecution are alleging is the chain of events that led to the loss of life. So Dirt Rock did actually testify that he was there at the Lakewood Mall. And the reason this is important is because Michael Sanft, lead counsel for the defense, the other day started to introduce the idea that police, law enforcement agencies couldn't even corroborate the fact that there ever was an altercation at the Lakewood Mall. And without that altercation, the domino effect never leads to that shooting in Las Vegas. So he's been trying to pick holes in the idea that that ever happened. But Dirt Rock today, he testified and he said, I was there.

3:21That did happen. Now, in cross-examination, Sam said, OK, the first time you told this story to law enforcement officers, you said there was a fight and it was broken up by police and they didn't really take statements. They just wanted to get us out of there. This wasn't in Compton. It was a different area. Kids, families around. They wanted us gone. The second time you told this story was to Detective Mogg in 2023. Now, that is the detective that ultimately gets the search warrant for Kifidi's house and ultimately charges him with the murder of Tupac Shakur. He says when you told him this story in 2023, you said it was, quote, mayhem.

3:55You said it took place outside a footlocker and it was so bad that the store actually had to be remodeled. Now, every time Sam speaks or he asks a question of the witness, we know he's being guided by the principle of raising questions about whether they could corroborate that information. We know that because he told us that in opening statements. what are the material facts and how far did law enforcement officers go to corroborate them? So in saying it happened at the Foot Locker and that it needed to be remodeled, we have two pieces of information there that Samft picked up on, noted to the jury and made sure to get out there in cross-examination.

4:27Now, the other really interesting part of Dirt Rock's testimony, which brings us to the 2008 proffer agreement and the interview, is that he was actually working with law enforcement agencies undercover, investigating Kifidi on drug charges. Now, this is important because we know that through that cooperation that he had with law enforcement agencies, that they were able to find drug trafficking charges that were big enough to land Wayne Kephidi Davis in prison for the rest of his life. And they use that as leverage to get him to sit down for those 2008 interviews. Now, yesterday, Dupree, LAPD homicide unit investigator told us that actually we were investigating the death of Christopher Wallace, another tragic killing in 1997 of Biggie Smalls, the notorious B.I.G.

5:10We went to speak to Keefe D because we suspected him and he said, I can't tell you about that one, but I can tell you what happened in Vegas. And then we end up in these 2008 interviews where he's sitting down to talk about what happened to Tupac Shakur on the night of the 7th of September 1996. Now, on that recording, we have Dupree, who testified yesterday, and we also have Detective Kading, who we believe we are going to hear from as a witness because Michael Sanft made a great effort in opening statements to discredit him. Now, he published a book in 2011 where he directly accused Dwayne Keefer-D Davis of being the architect of the shooting that took Tupac Shakur's life.

5:48And the defense have also accused him of stealing the Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls files who then published that book and called him a disgraced LAPD officer. But we have Cading and Dupree on the recording. Now, at the beginning of the interview, we can hear Dwayne Keefer-D Davis being told, nothing you say here will be used against you as long as you are truthful, as long as you don't contradict what we're saying. these words can't come back to bite you basically. What is said right here cannot be used against you, Keithy. Nothing you say today can be used against you. Yeah, nobody's trying to...

6:18I was just waiting on the news camera to be at my house, man. You know what I'm saying? He's nervous. We're not. You've got to trust us too. And then they begin to ask him about what took place on that night, but not before reassuring him that, you know, you don't know who's snitching on you in your community. You don't know who's working against you. So the only people you should worry about right now is you and your family. Don't worry about your boys. Don't worry about the rest of the community because you don't know who's cooperating with us from elsewhere in the community. And you can hear Dwayne Davis saying, yeah, I mean, people have switched up on me.

6:48I don't care. I'm out the game. I'll tell you what you need to know because you've got such a big drug trafficking case against me. And he begins to tell the story now pretty early on in that interview. He says, if I was on the right side of the car when we pulled up next to Tupac Shakur and Shug Knight, I had a shot in myself. That's pretty much within the first five minutes of the interview tape. And you might be thinking, OK, well, you can stop the recording now because he's literally just confessed. He's just told you that he'd have done it himself, but he supplied the weapon to his nephew, Orlando Anderson.

7:18But we have to remember what Dupree told us yesterday. And that is that the LAPD and the FBI were interested in investigating Bad Boy and Death Row records for being companies built on narcotics money and basically being racketeering enterprises. So they were interested in a previous claim that Dwayne Davis had made in the 90s that Sean Diddy Combs had offered him money for the hit on Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight. Essentially, they wanted to follow the money because they were chasing a RICO case. So a lot of the interview revolves around what did Diddy ask for? When did he ask for it? Did you do this as a direct result of him asking for it?

7:53Who supplied the gun to you? You're going to hear a lot about Diddy and you might be thinking, isn't this about the murder? But like Dupree said yesterday, he was concerned with the murder. The FBI were concerned with Rico. Now, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis told them on that recording that he became aware that Sean Diddy Combs wanted a hit taken out on Suge Knight. He said after the release of the diss track hit him up, which is widely considered to be one of the best diss tracks of all time, Tupac Shakur's name was added to that list. If you go and listen to the diss track, I mean, it's very aggressively anti-bad boy, I think would be a polite way of putting it.

8:25I can't quote it for obvious reasons. And so he talks about Tupac Shakur's name being added onto that list. And he said that Sean Diddy Combs actually made public statements calling for hits on Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight. But ultimately that they meet at this deli called Green Black and Diddy asks him to come downstairs for a private conversation. And that's important to know that he claims it was just him and Diddy in that conversation where he offers him money to take a hit out on Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight. So he tells you, seriously, man, I need to get rid of these guys.

9:09Now there's a little bit of contradiction here because originally they asked him in the interview, how much money did you ask for? And he says, we wanted a million. But then later on in the same interview he claims that it was Sean Diddy Combs who brought up the sum of a million and then he laughs about it saying you know guys from the projects would have done this for for$1 ,500. I wouldn't have said a million dollars but we had that interaction that he claims took place between him and Sean Diddy Combs. Who brought up the amount of one million dollars? Shit, he did. Puffy did? Yeah. Okay, wasn't you?

9:43No, I wasn't me, I'm shit. $1 million? $50. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So he brought up them$1 million? Yeah. Now, I'm going to say it probably a million times throughout this episode. Sean Diddy Combs has repeatedly denied any involvement in the death of Tupac Shakur. He's currently incarcerated on transportation for prostitution on two counts. And he was cleared of RICO and sex trafficking. But he's never been charged in relation with this murder, with this crime. And he has denied, denied, denied over the years. So Kifidi claims that he has that private one-on-one conversation with Sean Diddy Combs where he's offered money for this hit.

10:20And then it's communicated that that money will basically go through Eric Zip Martin, who was the kind of go-between between Sean Diddy Combs and Dwayne Kifidi Davis. He introduced them. We've heard about him a few times already. We heard about him actually from the beginning in opening statements. And then they ask him during the recording, did Biggie Smalls have anything to do with this? And Dwayne Kifidi Davis says, no, it was all puffy. And then he begins to tell the story of what he says happened in Vegas on the 7th of September 1996. He tells us a lot of stuff we've heard repeatedly throughout this trial.

10:49He says there is the altercation at the MGM where his nephew, Orlando Anderson, is being pretty brutally beaten by a large group of people. He says that he was at the MGM at that time. He was in the restaurant with some of his friends and his girlfriend. They'd been to the fight, but they all had tickets with separate seating. So they were split up. So they'd agreed to meet at this restaurant. And that is how Orlando Anderson became separated from them. He just couldn't find the group. Then he's attacked. They find out. And he says that the East Coast Crips and the New Yorkers who were there in town at the time were asking them, do you need any help with this?

11:21But he said, no, it's OK. We've got it. And then he has a conversation with Eric Zikmartin where he reveals that he actually has a gun. Keefe has made clear to investigators at this point that they didn't have any pistols. They didn't have weapons. But then Eric Zikmartin says, this is the perfect opportunity. so they meet up. Dwayne Kifidi Davis claims that when he arrives at the car of Eric Zip Martin, Foxy Brown is actually in the front passenger seat. He said she was wearing a pink outfit and she got out. He hopped in and he supplied him with the gun. The brawl was in there first. Foxy Brown.

11:50She was in? She was in the car with him. OK. And from there, it's an element of the story we have heard repeatedly from the prosecution. He is in the white Cadillac. They are driving around Las Vegas trying to find Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight. They go to Club 662 because they think that might be where they are. Now, we know that is the club that Suge Knight was trying to officially own. Many people actually already thought he did own it, but it wasn't official yet, as we heard from Mob James earlier in the week. So they're waiting at Club 662. They don't see them. They begin to drive around Las Vegas.

12:20Now, in his interview, 2008 interview, he claims that he saw a group of women or a group of broads, as he put it, screaming Tupac, Tupac. And that's how they became aware that Tupac was in this car, in this black BMW. you. He says they do a U-turn, they pull up next to them. Once again, he repeats the claim of saying, if he had been on my side of the car, I would have, he said popped him, but I'd have shot him myself. But that wasn't the way it was. They would have drove on my side, I would have popped him. You know what I'm saying? But they was on the other side. If we would have been on my side, I would have blasted.

12:51Okay. So he supplies his gun to the back seat. The man he originally supplies it to doesn't want to do it. He's too scared. So Orlando Anderson grabs the gun and then fires. He says he believed about six to seven shots into that car. Now, Dwayne Davis says in that interview that he actually thought Suge Knight was dead. He thought he'd been shot in the head because he had a graze across his head and he had blood dripping down. But he said he could see Suge Knight trying to duck, but he said he was actually too big to duck, while Tupac was trying to climb into the back of the car whilst being hit repeatedly.

13:21Now, after the shooting, one of the most interesting things we heard on the recording was that they ditched the gun, they ditched the car, they didn't take much care in disposing of the gun. And he was repeatedly questioned by the investigator saying, weren't you worried that the gun could have led back to Eric Zip Martin, could have led back to Sean Puffy Combs? And he's like, no, we got rid of the gun, we got rid of the car. And actually, we then walked back out onto Las Vegas Boulevard and we were at the crosswalk when we saw the ambulance drive past us. And he claims inside the ambulance was Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight.

13:51And he says they stood there as the ambulance went past them. We're on Las Vegas Boulevard at the crosswalk and they pull up a damn mouse right next to us.

14:05Now we know what the defense are going to say because we've heard it already. He's talking a load of crap. He's making this up. There's absolutely no way to verify that he was even in Vegas, let alone stood at the crosswalk while the ambulance carrying the victim of the shooting went by. Now, he said after this, they went back to partying and smoking weed. And then eventually they go back to Los Angeles, where in the next couple of days, he receives a phone call from Eric Zip Martin. in, he says, let's meet up. And when they do meet up, he says he's been being called by Sean Puffy Combs and Faith Evans, who you might know as the first lady of Bad Boy Records.

14:37She also had a relationship with Biggie Smalls. And he said that he's been called by Diddy and Faith Evans. And they've been saying, was that us? As in, was that the hit we put out that we're seeing all over the news that Tupac Shakur has been hit? And Dwayne Davis says, yeah, that was us. And he's expecting payment. Now, he claims to investigators that that payment was made to Eric Zip Martin, but never reached him. And that was causing issues. Now, he told them before that it was supposed to be a million dollars. Whether he asked for the a million or Diddy suggested the a million, he was contradicting himself in the interview.

15:08But he said that money never made it to him. And he claims that that is the reason that the relationship between Eric Zip Martin and Sean Puffy Combs broke down. He claimed that Diddy found out that this money never made its way back to Keefie D. But Diddy had already sort of unofficially contracted Dwayne Davis to be a security protection service for his artists when they were in Los Angeles. And then in 1997, Biggie Smalls gets shot. So the fact that this money never made it back, there was the breakdown of that. Protective services has caused a rift in the relationship between Eric Zip Martin and Shaw Diddy Combs.

15:42Once again, all allegations being made by Keefe D. But he claims that they are no longer speaking. Got to remember, this interview is from 2008. So he says he never gets the money from Eric Zip Martin. He says that Diddy finds out he never gets the money. And essentially, all three of them are no longer speaking to each other anymore. And this is what interests the law enforcement agents in the room. They are trying to follow the money. Can they corroborate in any way that this money was given to Eric Zip Martin, that he didn't give it to Dwayne Davis, that Sean Diddy Combs, Sean Puffy Combs put out the hit on Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight?

16:12So then they start having a discussion. Would it be easier for you now in 2008 to get back in contact with Sean Diddy Combs or with Eric Zip Martin? Now, you might think quite remarkably, because I know everybody in the room did, Dwayne Kivy D. Davis said it would be easier to get back in touch with Puffy, quote, Puffy, than Eric Zip Martin. But the investigators in the room are questioning that, going, you know, he's a sophisticated guy now. It's 2008. Like, how are you going to set up a meeting with him? And he's got skeletons in his closet he doesn't want to have coming out. He's not going to want to talk to you, essentially.

16:41Now, we know because of Dupree's testimony yesterday that ultimately Dwayne Davis ends up going undercover in New York to reopen the relationship with Eric Zip Martin. And we hear that plan being formulated here. They say, what would you do if we could get you out to New York? You know, could you get around Zip? Could you get around Puffy? And he's going, yeah, I'll go to New York. I'll get on that. In fact, he says, I'll get on that right now. And they're telling him to take his time. Now, ultimately, we know that that investigation, that undercover operation went nowhere because Eric Zip Martin had cancer.

17:09that he was, quote, out the game and basically passed Dwayne Davis off to his cousin and said, you know, if you want to do business, you can talk to him. But I haven't got anything to do with Diddy and I'm not in this world anymore. We know that investigation where they were trying to look at a RICO charge for Diddy, saying that Bad Boy was a criminal enterprise, ultimately ended up with nothing because Zip Martin couldn't connect them. And that undercover operation in New York was kind of a bust. But this case right now in 2026 is about murder in the first degree. And although those agents in the room, like Dupree said, were concerned with a RICO case today, we are concerned with who was the architect of the crime that that ended up in the death of Tupac Shakur.

17:49And throughout that interview, we hear Dwayne Keefe D. Davis repeatedly admit to not just securing the weapon and supplying it into the back, but to driving around Las Vegas looking for them and to saying multiple times, if he had been on my side of the car, I would have shot him myself. Now, I just want to note something else, actually, because today when I sat in the courtroom, I sat behind Tupac's family. Usually I'm sat on the other side. And the juxtaposition of what was being said in that interview with the way it was being said, I can only imagine what that's like to listen to for them.

18:21But it is extremely jarring. And there is a reason for that. The interview is full of laughter. They're cracking jokes back and forth. You know, they're swearing. They're talking about people that they know. Keefe D cracks a lot of jokes. They laugh at him. They laugh with him. It is not the tone you would expect where somebody is basically repeatedly saying, yes, I orchestrated the murder of this 25 year old. And the reason that is, and law enforcement agents will tell you this, is this is a proffer. We want them to tell us everything. We want them to feel comfortable, not judged. We want them to open up as much as possible so we can get all the information.

18:55But hearing it today, hearing the admissions with the way they were being admitted, there was a lot of reflection on that as we came out of the courtroom. and members of the public who were in there were saying, you know, I'm not sure I could have gone through that and listened to the death of my family member be admitted to in that way. Now, of course, the defence are going to come up and say those weren't admissions, those were the ramblings of somebody who, quote, talks a lot of crap. We know that's their defence. They told us that in opening statements. Now, I know tomorrow we're going to hear some of those 2009 recordings, and I think we've also got three witnesses.

19:30And that's it for this episode of Fame Under Fire, the two-pack murder trial, with me, Anishka Matanda-Dowity from BBC Sounds. Make sure you subscribe and turn on those push notifications because you do not want to miss a thing. We are doing daily coverage of this trial. We rejoice in the contribution our mum made to our lives in the short time we had together. A much-loved mother and sister. She drew the light in from a room, if I could use a phrase like that. A devoted father and brother. Trevor was the epitome of a gentleman. He was a family man. Found dead in tragic circumstances. An RUC man and housewife killed themselves after discovering their spouses were having an affair.

20:09But all was not as it seemed. 18 years ago, it was suicide. Today, it's a murder inquiry. Crime next door. The confession. I'm telling you, I was not in that plan. I did not know what he was coming to do. Listen now on BBC Sounds.