Former gang member and murder suspect Duane “Keefe D” Davis has been convicted of several charges following a violent altercation with another inmate at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas.
The incident, which occurred last December, was caught on surveillance cameras and showed Keefe D engaging in what authorities called “mutual combat,” involving grappling and exchanging closed-fist punches. Guards were forced to use pepper spray to break up the scuffle.
On April 9, a grand jury officially ruled that Keefe D was guilty of two charges — battery by a prisoner and issuing a challenge to fight. The ruling stems from the jailhouse brawl that added to his growing list of legal troubles.
Keefe D, 61, is scheduled for sentencing on May 27. While speaking about the incident, he argued that he was simply “standing his ground” and not the instigator of the fight.
This new conviction compounds the legal woes Keefe has faced since September 2023, when he was arrested and charged in connection to the 1996 murder of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur.
Keefe D, a former member of the Compton Crips, was the first person to be arrested in the long-unsolved case that rocked the hip-hop world decades ago
Despite the charges, Keefe has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon. His trial is not set to begin until February 2026, and he is expected to remain in custody until then.
In his first public interview since his arrest, Keefe told ABC News that he had no involvement in Tupac’s killing. Instead, he claimed that a former bodyguard of Death Row CEO Suge Knight was the real orchestrator behind the drive-by shooting.
“They don’t have nothing,” Keefe said, referring to the prosecution’s evidence. “No gun, no car, no Keefe D, no nothing. They can’t even place me out here.”
Keefe further insisted he was in Los Angeles on the night of Tupac’s death and said “20 or 30 people” could verify his alibi. He went on to name Reggie Wright Jr., a former Compton police officer and security chief at Death Row Records, as the person who ordered the hit.
Wright Jr. had earlier testified against Keefe D before the grand jury but firmly denied any involvement. Speaking to ABC News, he called the accusations “heartbreaking” and said, “I didn’t have anything to do with that. One of the worst days of my life was when I heard it happened.”
