Tupac murder suspect 'Keffe D' asks for charges to be dismissed in new filing

It took nearly 30 years after the fact to arrest the only man ever charged with the murder of famed rapper Tupac Shakur -- and that alleged killer's lawyer now says, that delay is exactly one of the reasons those charges should be dismissed.

In a motion filed Monday in Las Vegas, Duane "Keffe D" Davis said his constitutional rights have been violated through an "unjustified" lengthy lag time making for "dimming of memories, the death or disappearance of witnesses, and the loss or destruction of material physical evidence."

"Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department as far back as 2009 was in possession of the same set of facts that the Clark County District Attorney is now alleging makes Mr. Davis responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur," Davis' attorney Carl Arnold said in his filing, claiming Clark County's District Attorney Office "has offered no reason as to why it waited another 14 years to prosecute a case against" his client, and that Davis's case had been "irreversibly" compromised, his rights violated "in an extraordinary manner never before witnessed in the annals of the American criminal justice system."

Arnold argued prosecutors have no corroborating evidence aside from Davis' confessions — that the evidence "comes solely from Mr. Davis' statements," and without independent sets of facts the indictment against him "must be dismissed."

"Too many witnesses have died and the unavailability of evidence has occurred during the prosecution's delay of this matter," Arnold said, itemizing the names of those allegedly on the scene of Shakur's 1996 drive-by shooting near the Vegas strip — from Suge Knight, driving the BMW with Shakur, to the three men allegedly in the Cadillac with Davis, to Sean "Diddy" Combs, whom, Davis has claimed, solicited a $1 million hit on Knight and Shakur, as ABC News has reported.

But because all these men are either dead or incarcerated, Arnold said, they are unfortunately unavailable.

To cap it off, Arnold argued, an immunity agreement initially promised to Davis by cops who first enticed him to start telling his story is not being honored.

Combs has long vehemently denied any role in Shakur's shooting.

As ABC News reported last year, Davis confessed to his role in the Shakur homicide in 2008 to detectives on a joint federal-Los Angeles task force.

According to police at the time, Davis made his admissions as part of what's known as a "proffer agreement," so what he told investigators could not be used against him in court.

Then in 2009, Davis sat down with Las Vegas detectives to tell his version of events again -- and again confirmed his "shot caller" role in Shakur's killing, police said.

Arnold now argues the original proffer should still hold now.

"The State of Nevada was in possession in 2009 of the facts that led to [Davis'] arrest in 2023, specifically, his alleged statement that he was in the white Cadillac and handed the gun to the back seat passengers, which was utilized to shoot Tupac Shakur," Arnold said, and prosecutors "must now honor the initial proffer agreement of 2008 and the LVMPD's promise not to prosecute Mr. Davis."

Davis' attorney argues prosecutors are "refusing to honor the agreements provided to Mr. Davis by the federal government and by LVMPD."

But LVMPD had no role in the joint task force agreement, and Vegas detectives did not promise never to prosecute Davis, according to interview recordings and transcripts previously reviewed by ABC -- only that they were not there to arrest Davis at the time of that confession, which was not a proffer but rather a voluntary statement, prosecutors have said -- and in fact at that time Davis acknowledged that no authorities from Las Vegas had promised him anything.

There was concern among Vegas authorities then, in 2009, that Davis would argue in court that both sets of alleged confessions were inadmissible because the proffer gave him immunity even though Las Vegas police had no role in making the agreement, officials have told ABC.

And, if a judge were to side with Davis, they figured, that would likely have doomed any prosecution.

But in the proceeding years, that became a non-issue because Davis would ultimately go on to repeatedly recount his confessional role in the killing, not only to police but in the media, including in a 2018 docuseries and on the pages of the memoir he would publish in 2019.

Davis' own public words reinvigorated the investigation, the lead of Vegas' homicide bureau, Lt. Jason Johansson told ABC last year, and would be key in the case against him and would ultimately land him in the Las Vegas jail where he now has been held since his Sept. 2023 arrest.

A hearing has been scheduled to argue over Davis' motion to dismiss on Jan. 21.

His trial is set for March 17.