A former Las Vegas police officer testified in court that rapper Tupac Shakur refused to identify his shooters as he lay wounded in an ambulance after a 1996 drive-by shooting.
Garry Dale, a former Las Vegas police officer, recounted riding with Shakur to the hospital and pressing the music icon for the names of his attackers. Shakur responded, "No, no, we'll take care of it," Dale testified on Monday (August 18) in the murder trial of Duane Davis, now 63.
Shakur's Final Words and the Trial's Opening
Prosecutors allege that Davis organized the shooting as an act of revenge. Shakur died six days later in the hospital, taking the identities of his killers with him.
The trial against Davis, a former gangland figure, entered its second day on Tuesday, with prosecutors showing the court grim photos from Shakur's autopsy. Some family members left the courtroom before the photos were shown.
Autopsy Details and Witness Testimony
Dr. Lisa Gavin, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner for Clark County, Nevada, testified that a bullet entered Shakur's chest near his armpit, traveled through his chest and a lung, causing the lung to collapse and bleed. Doctors removed the damaged lung, but Shakur succumbed to his wounds days later. More bullets damaged his intestines and other parts of his body.
Gavin, called as an expert witness because the original examiner from 30 years ago has since died, was among the early witnesses. A forensic expert also described the four fatal bullet wounds to Shakur's chest.
Prosecution's Case and Defense's Response
Davis's defense maintains there is no merit to the allegations. However, prosecutors say Davis was full of "visceral anger" after Tupac and his crew allegedly beat up Davis's nephew, Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson, following a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand hotel.
Hours after the altercation, Shakur was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip. In 1997, Shakur's mother Afeni Shakur filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Anderson, which was settled out of court shortly before Anderson's death in 1998. Anderson was killed in a shootout at a car wash in Compton, California, in a row over drug money, with police saying his death was unrelated to the Shakur investigation.
Authorities took more than 25 years to formally charge Davis, who has acknowledged that his nephew fired the shots while he was in the car. During opening arguments on Monday, a prosecutor told the jury, "Duane Davis did not pull the trigger, but what he did do was plan the retaliation for the beating of his nephew."
Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal added, "Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself." Davis, 63, could be sentenced to 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 lawyer Michael Sanft called the prosecution's narrative "fiction" in his opening remarks, telling jurors that Davis was not previously charged despite implicating himself in interviews and his memoir because law enforcement knew he was "full of crap."
Jurors were shown video of Shakur's entourage attacking Davis's nephew hours before the shooting on September 7, 1996. The DA said Davis spent the next two hours planning how to get even, and Shakur was gunned down "in an act of revenge."
Palal also told jurors that Davis had a visceral hatred for Shakur for decades, which drove him to speak repeatedly about it. In a 2008 interview with federal investigators, Davis described handing a gun to men in the back seat of a white Cadillac that fired on a black BMW with Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight inside. In a 2009 interview with Las Vegas police, Davis admitted his role, and he further implicated himself in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.
A former Las Vegas homicide detective said investigators pieced together the identities of Davis, Anderson, and the other two men in the car through informants, but could not find witnesses willing to officially identify them. A former Los Angeles Police Department detective told the court that Davis had briefly been a suspect in the 1997 shooting death of the Notorious B.I.G., but was later discounted.
Sanft said outside court that the 30-year gap since the crime would help Davis, noting, "The length of time is going to be a huge problem for people trying to recall things, to remember things."
