Judge suspects cover-up over true source of bail funds for man accused of Tupac’s murder

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A judge on Tuesday again denied a request to free a sick former Los Angeles gang leader ahead of his trial for the 1996 murder of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur, saying she suspected a cover-up involving the source of the funds for his bail.

Clark County District Court Judge Carla Kierny’s decision got here after a lawyer for Duane “Keffe D” Davis said she would offer additional documents to prove that a record company executive offering to cover Davis’ $750,000 bail obtained the cash legally. But Kierny said she was skeptical after receiving two equivalent letters, apparently from an entertainment company that Cash “Wack 100” Jones said gave him the cash as payment for his work.

The judge found that one of the letters was signed with a reputation that had nothing to do with the corporate, while the opposite letter had a misspelled name and a return address linked to a physician’s practice.

“I feel like they’re trying to hide certain facts,” Kierny said.

The hearing took a special turn when Davis’s attorney, Carl Arnold, told the judge that the bail bond agent Davis used had provided the entertainment company with instructions on the language the letters were to be written in, so he could testify about their authenticity.

In a devastating response, prosecutor Binu Palal said the bond trader can have committed a criminal offense by submitting a “false document to this court.”

“The state takes this very seriously,” he said. “Be aware that this will not go unchecked.”

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Both Palal and Arnold declined to comment further.

Davis sought release shortly after his September 2023 arrest, making him the one person ever charged in a single of hip-hop’s most enigmatic mysteries. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

Also on Tuesday, Kierny moved the beginning of Davis’ trial from Nov. 4 to March 17.

Kierny had previously rejected Davis’ offer for Jones to pay $112,500 for his release to home confinement, adding, she said on the time, whether the couple planned to earn a living by selling Davis’ life story.

Nevada has a law, sometimes called the “killer law,” that prohibits convicted killers from cashing in on their crimes.

Jones, who has managed artists including Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, testified in June that he desired to help Davis because he was battling cancer and “has always been a big figure in our community… especially in the urban community.”

Davis himself has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 memoir that he’s the one living suspect within the fatal shooting of Shakur, which occurred nearly 28 years ago at a traffic light near the Las Vegas Strip.

Authorities say the shooting was the result of a rivalry between members of the East Coast Bloods and the West Coast Crips, including Davis, for dominance in a genre then generally known as “gangsta rap.”