Tupac murder suspect fails in bid to suppress key evidence

Tupac murder suspect fails in bid to suppress key evidence

The man charged with murder for his alleged role in the 1996 shooting death of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur has lost his bid to suppress key evidence.

Duane 'Keffe D' Davis argued it was obtained through an unlawful nighttime search, but a judge denied the request at a Tuesday hearing, Rolling Stone reports.

His defence lawyers argued in filings obtained by the outlet that Davis was a retired grandfather and cancer survivor who "cooperated politely" when a detective knocked on his door during daylight hours before the July 2023 search.

The lawyers said police made "strategic omissions" when they portrayed Davis as a "multiple-time convicted felon" with a gun arrest in their search warrant application.

According to the lawyers, Davis left the drug trade in 2008 and had a decade of lawful employment afterwards, working as an oil refinery inspector.

Davis has pleaded not guilty to a single murder count and is being held without bail at the Clark County Detention Centre in Las Vegas.

Prosecutors allege he orchestrated Shakur's drive-by killing and supplied the gun that also wounded Suge Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records, who was driving along the Vegas Strip.

Authorities say the attack was retaliation after Shakur got in a fight with Orlando Anderson hours earlier inside a casino on 6 September, 1996.

During a 2008 interview with law enforcement, Davis claimed Sean 'Diddy' Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, offered $1 million (£740,000) to have Knight and Shakur killed amid a feud.

Combs has vehemently denied the allegation.