Duane “Keefe D” Davis, the man facing trial for the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, has been handed more time behind bars after a jailhouse fight.
Davis was sentenced to an additional 16 to 40 months in prison for his role in the brawl, which occurred while he was already being held without bail awaiting trial. During the hearing, Keefe D insisted he was not the aggressor.
“I was attacked. It was wrong, I know not to fight in the jail. The guy attacked me,” Davis told the court. “My parents brought me up to protect myself, and that’s all I was doing, protecting myself, and this is totally wrong, man.”
With his Tupac trial not scheduled to begin until February, Davis is expected to serve most of the new sentence while awaiting proceedings.
The former Compton gang member has repeatedly attempted to have the murder case against him dismissed. In a recent motion, his defense argued that prosecutors lack the evidence to move forward.
“This prosecution has captured worldwide attention. The global public is watching how Nevada upholds due process, fairness, and the rule of law in one of the most closely scrutinized criminal proceedings in recent memory,” the filing stated.
It continued, “Nevada law is unambiguous: a conviction cannot rest solely on an uncorroborated extrajudicial statement. The State has offered nothing to corroborate the trustworthiness of Mr. Davis’s alleged statements, and nothing independently connecting him to the murder itself.”
For now, Keefe D remains behind bars, awaiting one of the most highly watched trials in hip hop and criminal justice history.