Duane 'Keffe D' Davis' murder trial heads to closings in Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur is headed to closing arguments after the defense rested Thursday following testimony from three former Las Vegas police officers.

Jurors are scheduled to return Monday for closing arguments before beginning deliberations in the only prosecution brought in the killing of the hip-hop icon. The presentation of evidence ended after nine days of testimony.

Davis, 63, did not take the stand.

Shakur was riding in a BMW on Sept. 7, 1996, when a white Cadillac pulled up next to it at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip and gunfire erupted. Shakur was shot multiple times and died six days later. The driver of the BMW, Marion “Suge” Knight, survived.

Years later, Davis would say he procured the gun and his nephew, who has since died, fired the shots. Prosecutors say Davis orchestrated the killing, and he faces life in prison if convicted of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has pleaded not guilty.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft has argued that Davis fabricated or embellished his accounts of the killing for money and notoriety and that investigators failed to independently corroborate his claims.

Retired Las Vegas homicide detective Dan Long, the defense’s final witness, testified that he tried unsuccessfully to verify several details Davis provided during a 2009 police interview.

Davis told Long that his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, had gone to a Las Vegas hospital after being beaten by Shakur and others in a casino brawl hours before the rapper was fatally shot. Long said he was unable to find hospital records confirming Anderson was treated there.

Long also tried unsuccessfully to locate records for a white Cadillac that Davis said had been rented before the shooting.

Asked by a juror whether he had been able to verify that Davis was actually in the Cadillac the night Shakur was killed, Long said Davis himself told him he was in the car and that the shooting came from it.

On follow-up questioning by Sanft, Long acknowledged he had no independent facts outside of what Davis told him confirming he was in the Cadillac.

Prosecutors countered that Davis’ account matched information already developed by investigators. On cross-examination, Long testified that Davis identified the same four men investigators already believed were in the Cadillac when Shakur was shot.

Long also said he returned to Las Vegas after interviewing Davis in 2009 intending to seek an arrest warrant for murder because he believed there was probable cause, but prosecutors at the time told him to stand down while they reviewed the matter.

The defense also called two former Las Vegas police officers who were assigned to keep the peace at Knight's home on the night of the shooting. They testified about vehicles entering and leaving the gated residence, including a cream- or white-colored Cadillac.

The case remained unsolved for decades before Davis’ public interviews and 2019 memoir helped revive scrutiny of the killing.

Prosecutors rested Wednesday after calling 24 witnesses. They contend Davis orchestrated Shakur’s killing in retaliation for the casino fight involving Anderson, and their case relied heavily on Davis’ own accounts over the years, including interviews, his memoir and recorded jail calls.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Monday morning.

Associated Press Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. reported from Los Angeles.

Former Las Vegas Metro Police officer Charlie Mangrum listens to Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo during the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

Defense attorney Michael Sanft shows exhibits to former Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Charlie Mangrum during the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

Former Las Vegas Metro Police detective Dan Long testifies in court during the Duane Davis trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

Duane Davis enters the courtoom during his trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, Pool)

Defense attorney Michael Sanft, left, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo, confer during the trial of Duane Davis, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (Caroline Brehman/Pool Photo via AP)

Duane Davis looks on during his trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (Caroline Brehman/Pool Photo via AP)

Duane Davis looks on during his trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (Caroline Brehman/Pool Photo via AP)

Duane Davis looks on during his trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, in Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (Caroline Brehman/Pool Photo via AP)

The ongoing White House construction contributed to radio problems that kept air traffic controllers from hearing calls warning that President Donald Trump's helicopter was getting ready to take off, so they cleared an airline jet to take off just as Marine One took to the air earlier this month, federal investigators said Thursday.

The week before the president's helicopter got too close to that Envoy Air jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, air traffic controllers and Marine One pilots met to discuss controllers not receiving the standard three-minute warning call ahead of Marine One flights, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board. They made plans to relay radio calls through someone else if there were future problems but that was also unsuccessful on the day of the Aug. 4 incident.

Technicians discovered after the fact that the reason Marine One was having trouble talking to the tower at times was because the helicopter shifted to a new location during the White House construction. So the Federal Aviation Administration moved the radio receiver out of a neighborhood near the airport and to the top of the tower at Reagan to fix the problem.

“Even though they were aware of some previous communications issues, they never got at the root cause,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said.

The FAA said in a statement that it took immediate action after the incident by moving that antenna “to improve communications” between the airport and Marine One pilots.

The White House didn't immediately respond to the preliminary report, although the ongoing NTSB investigation does limit what it can say about the incident.

Having both the jet and helicopter in the air at the same time also seemed to violate safety procedures put in place after last year’s midair collision near the busy airport that killed 67 people, but officials stressed that the president was never in danger. The Pentagon also has a longstanding agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide controllers with a three-minute warning before the president’s helicopter takes off that predates last year’s crash.

The NTSB said recordings from the tower showed that the controllers never heard the calls from Marine One's pilot that day warning that the helicopter was getting ready to take off, but separate recordings posted by ATC.com show the helicopter did make those calls.

The helicopter pilots tried to relay their three-minute call through the helicopter facility at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, but that was also unsuccessful.

The FAA decided after an airliner collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Jan. 29, 2025, that all takeoffs and landings at the airport would be halted anytime a helicopter passes by on a conflicting route. The airspace near the White House and Reagan is heavily congested with military and commercial aircraft.

The FAA has acknowledged that the helicopter and airliner briefly got too close before the two aircraft started to move away from each other. The airplane quickly climbed above the helicopter after Marine One’s pilots saw the plane and paused until it safely left the area.

The NTSB said preliminary estimates show the helicopter and plane were just over 0.8 mile (1.3 kilometers) apart laterally and about 700 feet (215 meters) apart vertically at their closest. The crew of the Envoy Air flight told investigators they received a traffic warning from their collision avoidance system right after they took off, but they never saw the helicopter.

The official FAA recordings from the tower at Reagan did not include the warnings that Marine One was getting ready to head to Andrews Air Force Base with the president aboard that day.

A recording posted by ATC.com showed the Marine One pilot telling the tower that the helicopter was “three minutes to lift” just like the 2013 agreement between the FAA and the military calls for. But the controller seemed surprised a few minutes later when the helicopter took off.

“Uh, Marine One, you said, uh, you’re proceeding as briefed?” the controller asked before giving the helicopter directions and commenting, “OK, no three minutes, roger, proceed as briefed.”

After the controller warned the helicopter about the plane taking off, the Marine One pilot said he saw the traffic and declared, “We’ll be doing a momentary delay.”

Guzzetti, who is a former crash investigator for both the NTSB and FAA, said he doesn't fault the controllers because they never heard Marine One's warnings. And once they did realize the helicopter was taking off, they quickly warned the pilots and ordered another plane coming in to Reagan to abort landing and circle around.

“In this case, the controller did absolutely nothing wrong. He did not receive the transmission saying that they were three minutes away from taking off. So he had no reason to hold the airplane that was lining up and waiting,” Guzzetti said.

After last year’s midair collision, it became clear that poor communication between air traffic controllers and the military had been a longstanding issue. During a congressional hearing, it came out that a hotline connecting the Pentagon to the tower at Reagan hadn’t been working for more than three years, and the FAA hadn’t even realized it.

The NTSB said that after this incident involving Marine One, FAA technicians determined that there wasn't adequate line of sight between the radio receiver at the airport and the location where the helicopter takes off at the White House. So those radios were moved from the neighborhood where they had been located to the top of the tower at Reagan. Subsequent tests showed the radios working well after that change.

President Donald Trump arrives on Marine One at the Ellipse near the White House, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump, left, walks from Marine One to board Air Force One, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to South Carolina. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)