Tupac: Day 7 - Keffe D’s Scrapbook

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0:31Hello and welcome back to the Tupac murder trial from Fame Under Fire from BBC Sounds with me, Anushka Matanda-Dawati. I'm here in the Regional Justice Centre in Las Vegas. Now today, we finally saw some other evidence. Since the beginning of this case, the prosecution have been telling us, and I've said this a million times now, that the most remarkable thing about this trial is that the defendant, Dwayne Kifidi-Davis, is going to repeatedly admit to being the shock caller, the architect of the crime of the shooting that killed Tupac Shakur. And the defense have been saying, well, Kifidi, quote, talks a lot of crap.

1:02If that's all the evidence you've got, then this is a pretty weak case. But today we heard about the 2023 nighttime search warrant. Now, what happened was is the last detective that was investigating this case, Detective Mog, signed an affidavit claiming that they needed to search Dwayne Kifidi Davis's house because they thought there would be evidence there that would pertain to the murder of Tupac Shakur. And they wanted to investigate. Now, bear in mind, the murder took place in 1996. and this is a 2023 nighttime search warrant, but it was given and his house was searched. Now, Dwayne Keefe D.

1:31Davis and his defense team have said this was an illegal nighttime search, but all of the evidence from it was submitted into court today. And we heard what some of the other evidence is that the prosecution claim they have that bolstered eventually charging him. So it was after that nighttime search that they did file charges, official charges, against Dwayne Keefe D. Davis. Now, we heard from some of the crime scene analysts who were there and they talked through what they found. Most notably was what the prosecution described as a scrapbook. And there were newspaper clippings going all the way back to 1996.

2:02Let me just show some of the newspaper articles. So, state's exhibit number 137H. This appears to be an article about Mr. Shakur's death. Yes, sir. 137G. another one about the death of Mr. Shakur and this one's actually dated September 19th of 96 yes sir there's another article that was found in there talking about Mr. Knight being kept in jail yes sir and a newspaper article about a bad rap for new artists that's correct and I'm going to read you some of what they found so there was an article that said star rapper badly wounded so That's from September 13th, 1996, before Tupac was announced as actually having passed away.

2:53There were articles about his death, one from September 19th, 1996. Multiple, multiple articles about his death. These have all been like hand cut out and kept in a scrapbook. And we watched them under the monitor. There was articles about the fight at the MGM. There was articles about police raids targeting violence that was sparked by Tupac Shakur's death. There was articles about him and Suge Knight. There was a lot of material. It went one after the other after the other. If you're with us on YouTube, we'll have some of that on the screen right now so you can see what they found inside of his house.

3:22Now, previously, the prosecution had told us that they found during the nighttime raids two tubs of photographs, multiple electronic devices and a Vibe magazine that had Tupac Shakur on it. We found out today that that Vibe magazine was from November 1996, so two months after he passed away. And this was found in Duane Kieferty's residence in 2023. And this is ultimately what bolstered their investigation and led to an official charge. Now, when Samt began cross-examination, he didn't offer up an explanation for why there were those newspaper clippings, why there was the Vibe magazine. There was also a copy of his own book, Compton Street Legend, Keefe D.'s book, and Murder Rap, which we've heard a lot about, written by Greg Kading.

4:00Didn't really talk much about that, but he did say that one of the purposes of the nighttime raid was to establish the fact that the prosecution alleged Keefe D. did write his own book. Now, you've got to remember, this has been central to their evidence. the book Compton Street Legend, which was published in 2019, where Dwayne Keefe D. Davis appears to be repeatedly admitting to the fact that he was inside the white Cadillac, that he put his weapon in the back, that he directed the murder of Tupac Shakur. Now, the defense's rebuttal to that has been it was co-authored. He didn't know exactly what was in there and large sections of it were embellished to sell copies.

4:34Essentially, it's hyperbolic. It's fiction. So part of that nighttime search warrant is to look at the electronic devices and see, you know, is there stuff in there of Keefie Dee working on his manuscript? Do we see draft one, draft two? Do we have any actual evidence that he was the author of this book? Now, he asked the crime scene analyst that was on the stand at the time, did you search the electronic devices? And she responded saying, no, that's not what I did. You know, I documented the evidence that was there and we helped take it in. But that would have been Detective Mogg who would know more about what was on those electronic devices, which brings us back to a central narrative that Samft has been introducing repeatedly over the past couple of days.

5:09We need to hear from Detective Mogg. If you go back to our last episode, it was all about we need to hear from Detective Cading. And it's become extremely clear that the prosecution are not going to call Detective Mogg or Detective Cading. So by asking these questions, Samft is introducing to the jury that it would probably be pertinent for them to hear from Detective Mogg, since he was the last investigator on this case. and he would have actually examined the digital evidence, the laptops, the iPhones and the iPads that were recovered from Dwayne Keefe D. Davis's residence. But seeing as he isn't here, we didn't hear about what was on those electronic devices.

5:38So the question was asked and left unanswered, but questions asked and left unanswered are what the defence like, because that sounds like reasonable doubt. The last witness we had on stand was Robert Ladd, who is a former law enforcement agent who worked for the Compton Police Department, which we have heard a lot about in this case. Now, he was there testifying and telling the jury about gang culture at the beginning. And you might be thinking, why do we need to talk about gang culture? We have spoken about it ad nauseum throughout this trial. We have spoken about the Crips and the Bloods pretty much every day with every single witness.

6:08But it's really important because what the prosecution have charged Dwayne Keefe D. Davis with is not just murder in the first degree. It's murder in the first degree with gang enhancements. And the other enhancement is the supplying of a deadly weapon. But the gang enhancement basically means that that murder needed to be committed in the furtherance of gang activity. So it was part of gang activity. That's why that murder took place. And so we have Ladd on the stand breaking down how the gangs work. So Ladd testified that he knew the inner workings of these gangs really well. And then we spoke about the Southside Compton Crips where he broke down what he said was the hierarchy of that particular gang's culture.

6:43He said there's phase one where you're about 13 to 16 years old and you are getting initiated into the gang. And this happens by essentially you getting jumped, attacked by five to six members of the gang. They want to see how you fight back, how resilient you are, how tough you are. That's your initiation into that particular gang. Then you have the second phase, which is what he called the gangster phase. And he said this is the most violent phase. This is when you see people doing the drive-by shootings, the robberies, the murders. This is in the life cycle of a gangbanger, a sentence I never thought I'd say.

7:13And he said you're around 15 to 26 when you are in the gangster phase. And then he said when it's 26 and up, you're usually dealing with gang members who have gone to jail and come out. And these are the OGs or what he called the, quote, shock callers. And that is a particularly poignant phrase that's going to keep coming up throughout his testimony. Because he then went on to testify that Dwayne Keefe D. Davis was absolutely a shock caller in the Southside Compton Crips. Were you familiar with somebody by the name of Dwayne Davis? Yes. Were you aware, was he somebody that was a high-ranking person in that gang or a low-ranking person in that gang?

7:53Well, I think as high as you can get, yeah. Not only was he high up in the gang, but he was a very high-level narcotics dealer. He was making a lot of money. He said he was making so much money and moving so much weight that the Compton Police Department did not have the facilities to go after him. That was actually the LAPD and the FBI who ended up getting involved with Dwayne Keith E.D. Davis and the drug trafficking charge. But why do we need to go through the life cycle of a gangbanger? It's extremely important because you've got to remember the prosecution's theory is not that Dwayne Keefe D.

8:23Davis fired the gun himself. It's that he was the architect of the crime, the, quote, shot caller. I mean, double pun unintentional. But that is what they're saying. All right. So you're saying that Mr. Davis was a shot caller within the Southside content crimes. Absolutely. Yeah. And what does that mean? well he could tell the younger gangsters what to do and if they don't listen like i just said there's going to be severe consequences um the gang the younger gang members are supposed to do what they're told without hesitation it's the hand of one hand of all theory he instructed he supplied the weapon he directed it he was looking for them driving around in the white cadillac he planned out the crime so when lads on the stand testifying he's speaking to the culture of what would have gone on inside that car.

9:10And he testified that because Dwayne Keefe D. Davis was inside that white Cadillac and he is an OG, he's at the top of the hierarchy, any shots that would have been fired from that car would have been directed and sanctioned by him. It would not have happened of anybody else's own volition. For instance, Orlando Anderson, who he testified was in the gangster phase, so the middle phase, the 16 to 26-year-old phase where you're the most violent, wouldn't have initiated firing the shots. He would have sought permission from his family member, Dwayne Keefe D Davis.

10:13Robert Ladd testifying to that is really important for the prosecution's theory because as we know, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis is the only person still alive from inside that white Cadillac. So technically, the first-person testimony can only come from him. Is he going to take the stand? We still don't know. I don't think so. But Robert Ladd testifying to knowing the inner workings and the hierarchy and the structure of the Southside Compton Crips and saying, absolutely, if there's an OG or if there's a shot caller around, any shots that get fired, any decisions that are made are theirs in their entirety.

10:43So in the first part of his testimony, he's getting into what he alleges would have happened inside that white Cadillac. In the second part, he starts talking about why. And we start going through why retaliation is such a big part of gang culture. What happens if you're disrespected? How do you have to respond? And he's saying, essentially, it is the unbreakable rule. If someone disrespects you, You have to get them back. Otherwise, your street credit is gone. You're an embarrassment to the gang. He absolutely would have had to retaliate for the beating that Orlando Anderson took in the MGM, which, of course, we know is the prosecution's theory.

11:14They said at the beginning in opening statements, Dwayne Keefe D. Davis had visceral, visceral hatred towards Tupac Shakur because of what happened to his nephew. He has that visceral hatred they're alleging into the 2020s. Remember, they then played us a clip of him on the phone in jail where he was calling Tupac an array of slurs and saying, you know, he's not an icon. He attacked a 20 year old kid. He attacked my nephew. So Ladd is saying this isn't just pertinent to Dwayne Kiefer D. Davis. This is how they all operate. And the retaliation would have needed to happen. Then he moves on to speaking about what followed after Tupac Shakur's murder.

11:47And this is also to speak to the idea that this was a gang related crime. He said what followed was a complete war in Compton. He said he got the call from Reggie Wright Sr. on the night that Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas saying, get ready, a war is coming. You need to prepare yourself. It was the Southside Compton Crips and basically is going to be coming back to your front door. So get ready. And the prosecution introducing that testimony in front of the jury is obviously to contribute to the idea that this was a gang related crime. It was committed by a gang member. It was instructed by a gang member.

12:17it was in furtherance of gang activity and therefore that's a gang enhancement. And Robert Ladd testifies to exactly that. He said in the following days after Tupac Shakur's murder, we had three murders and 10 more attempted murders. In fact, a 10-year-old girl, he said a 10-year-old girl, previously people have said an 11-year-old girl, but a young girl lost her life in a shooting. It was absolute war back in Compton. And the response to this, he said, was that they issued 38 search warrants for the mob Pyru and for the Southside Compton Crips because they just wanted to stop the violence and they thought these search warrants would contribute to that.

12:51One of the houses that was searched, of course, was Dwayne Keefe D. Davis's. Another one was Orlando Anderson's. And this is where Sanft picks back up in cross-examination. He says, so this is 1997 where you get these 38 search warrants. So not that long, certainly not 30 years after the crime took place. You went into Dwayne Keefe D. Davis's house. Did you find any material evidence that placed him in Las Vegas on the 7th of September 1996? 1996. You're probably getting sick of me saying that question, but it is literally, Sanft repeats it to almost every single witness. And we know this is his underlying theory for the case.

13:23How can they say he killed Topak Shakur? They can't even place him in the right city at the time. So we asked that question of Robert Ladd and he says, no, we didn't. No ticket stubs, no photos, no nothing. Did you find any indication at all? Any MGM grand ticket of being on the second row of the fight, anything at all that would indicate that Mr. Davis was actually in Las Vegas? No. And so Sampd goes further, trying to once again introduce the idea that Dwayne Keefe D. Davis isn't exactly the most truthful man on the planet by saying, did you see any evidence of money lying around? Dwayne Keefe D.

13:56Davis has previously said he was making 20 % of a$4 million profit a month. Did you see that kind of money? And Ladd said, no, we didn't see that. Okay, okay. So what about expensive clothes? If you read his book, he says he had thousand dollar suits. He was suited and booted all the time. He dressed real good. Did you see any of that? No, we didn't see any of that. And what about expensive cars? Was there expensive cars outside? No, there were modified cars, but there weren't expensive cars. So you didn't see any evidence of any money, any cars or any proof that he was in Vegas. Once again, circling back to the underlying theory that Sam Taz, which is that the prosecution have, quote, no real facts.

14:34Then he goes one step further, introducing another question that we've heard from Sanford before. Do you actually have any evidence that what took place at the Lakewood Mall actually took place? Remember, the prosecution are alleging that there was a chain snatching at the Lakewood Mall by Orlando Anderson. That leads to the fight at the MGM. The MGM leads directly to the shooting. So without the Lakewood Mall, you do not get that domino effect that leads to the death of Tupac Shakur. And Sanford is saying, did you find anything in there that this altercation took place at the Lakewood Mall? And I knew this was going to be brought up because I said to you in the other episode, we had Dirt Rock on the stand and he was talking about being at the Lakewood Mall at the time and they read out some of his testimony that he gave to Detective Mog where he says it took place at a footlocker and it was so bad that it needs to be remodeled.

15:14Well, Sam brought all of that back in today. Did you see any police reports from what took place at the Lakewood Mall? Any reports filed by mall staff? Did you contact anyone at the footlocker? You know, testimony that was given to Mog says that it was so bad it had to be remodeled. Surely somebody would remember that or know that. Did you look for any of that documentation that could back up that there was an altercation. And he said, no. So Sam's saying you've got no evidence he was in Vegas, no evidence that the initial domino that's needed to trigger this whole chain reaction actually took place, and no evidence that he is a big-time narcotics dealer with loads of money and great clothes and nice cars.

15:50You've got none of that. But the prosecution did pick back up in redirect, and they said, hold on a second. You were in the Compton Police Department. You had intimate knowledge of this area. You knew these guys by their street monikers and their government names. did Dwayne Keefer D. Davis ever hide the fact that he was part of the Southside Compton Crips? And he said no, he was extremely proud to be a Southside Compton Crip and he didn't hide it. In fact, he said it to me when I saw him out on the street multiple times, which I would do. I would see him a lot. So the idea that he isn't a gangster, the idea that he wasn't making loads of money is ridiculous, essentially, because I saw this firsthand.

16:23And so Ladd was on the stand for quite a long time. And then at the end of it, as is so unique to these Nevada courts, you get jury questions. and this time they said, did the jury have any questions? And pretty much every single one of them was like, mm-hmm, I do. I won't run you through every single one because a lot of them we've covered in what we've gotten over so far, but there was a really, really important question that was asked and it was, quote, given there was a war in Compton that was triggered, you say, by the shooting of Tupac Shakur, is it fair to assume that you don't actually need a shot caller or an OG around you to allow you to fire shots because these guys were shooting at each other all the time?

16:57So therefore, the idea that you've introduced to us that you need one of these OGs, you need one of these older gangsters around you to say, yeah, you can shoot that person. You can do this drive-by shooting. You've undermined that. And Ladd responded. He said, OK, here's the distinction. If you're with them, it's their choice. So when they're in the white Cadillac and they're riding with Dwayne Keefe-Dee Davis, OG shot caller, and their shots fired, those shots were directed by Dwayne Keefe-Dee Davis. If you're not with them, fair game. You can do whatever you like, run wild. But as soon as they're there, they assume the position of command and control.

17:30And anything that happens afterwards was directed and sanctioned by them. That was a really interesting and an important question. I love some of these jury questions. I'm like, yo, are you a lawyer? That was such an important question because it's really interrogating the idea that, OK, Dwayne Kifidi Davis could have put his gun in the back seat. But that doesn't mean he directed Orlando Anderson to take it and shoot. How do we know that? I mean, say from having Dwayne Keefe-Dee Davis, the only living member of that white Cadillac, on the stand and testifying to it, we're going to go off the idea that if there's a shot caller there, they call the shots, but when they're not there, you can do what you like, which is what Ladd testified to.

18:07But it's interesting to see what the jury are beginning to question because it's those points of the prosecution's theory that we're having to hit. Those questions aren't random. You can see them picking up on the threads of stuff that has been introduced to the jury. We're starting at 1pm tomorrow, And we're having some more evidence introduced into the court, but I don't think we're having any more witnesses from the prosecution. I think after this evidence is introduced, they're going to arrest their case and then we'll see what the defense is going to put on. But a lot of the lawyers here are speculating that we might have a verdict by Friday, which is insane if you think about it for a 30 year old case to wrap it up in three weeks.

18:42They've been moving swift. They have been moving swift. And if we have a verdict on Friday or any other day, we'll have it here for you first. So make sure you have your push notifications turned on and you are subscribed so you never miss a thing. But right now, that's it for this episode of the Tupac Murder Trial from Fame Under Fire by BBC Sounds with me, Anishika Matanda-Dawati.

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