Tupac suspect worked undercover for cops trying to implicate Diddy & gangster pal in rapper’s murder, bombshell docs say
THE man charged with Tupac’s murder was a “confidential police informant” who even tried to set up an undercover drug deal in a bid to implicate hip hop mogul Diddy in the rapper’s murder, damning court filings allege.
Accused murderer Keefe D worked undercover with LAPD detectives from a task force initially set up to investigate the murder of Biggie Smalls after volunteering information about his role in Pac’s fatal shooting, according to a bombshell 179-page court filed by Las Vegas prosecutors.
According to the court papers, obtained by The U.S. Sun, Keefe became an informant after he was caught “trafficking a large amount of drugs” by the task force.
Keefe denied having any involvement in Biggie’s murder but gave police a recorded account – believing he was immune from prosecution – of how he and his fellow gang members killed Tupac in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996.
He also alleged in the interview that Diddy – real name Sean Combs – had previously offered him a million dollars for Tupac’s murder, which Diddy – then known as Puffy – later paid to a gangster called Eric “Zip” Martin, audio from which has been previously published by The U.S. Sun and can be heard below.
Now in a new twist, prosecutors are claiming that three months after the recorded confession, on March 9, 2009, Keefe “became an active Confidential Informant for the Task Force.”
In a section titled, “Additional evidence never considered before by the court,” the document goes on to allege that Keefe, accompanied by officers from the task force, flew to New York on June 17, 2009, in a bid to “corroborate the conspiracy” to commit Tupac’s murder.
It explains that detectives “believed they had jurisdiction to investigate a Nevada homicide because Defendant [Keefe] asserted that the conspiracy to commit the murder began in California between Defendant, Eric ‘Zip’ Martin, and Sean Combs.”
Keefe “acting in an undercover capacity” ran into Zip on the street as he approached his workplace, according to prosecutors.
“Mr. Martin [Zip] greeted Defendant excitedly and they had a
social conversation,” the court papers say.
“Thereafter, Mr. Martin, his nephew and Defendant got into the nephew’s blue Cadillac DTS and drove over to see Mr. Martin’s sister.
“After returning, Defendant tried to enlist Mr. Martin in an effort to traffic narcotics.
“Mr. Martin indicated he was out of the business but directed him to conduct his drug activities with the nephew.
“Thereafter, Defendant and Mr. Martin socialized in Mr. Martin’s restaurant for several hours.”
Diddy – who has always denied any involvement in Tupac’s death – appears to be further implicated in the court papers when prosecutors summarize one of Keefe’s other interviews, and state:
“Sean Combs reaches out to Defendant wondering if South Side Crips were responsible for Shakur’s death by asking, ‘Is that us?’
“Defendant, beaming with pride, answers, ‘Yes.'”
Keefe, real name Duane Davis, was hoping to be freed after a bail hearing next week ahead of his trial for Pac’s murder slated for November.
A judge denied his release in June even after he was able to secure the $750,000 bond to be freed while he awaits trial, citing concerns over the source of the fund’s music manager Cash “Wack 100” Jones.
Prosecutors are opposing Keefe’s release on bail as they released a slew of evidence against the former drug kingpin.
Keefe’s lawyer Carl Arnold has previously claimed his client was not even in Las Vegas on the night Tupac was shot, September 7, 1996.
However, the latest filing contains a number of statements Keefe has made both to police and in interviews and books, in which he claims he was.
Why it’s taken so long for justice in the Tupac Shakur case
By The Sun's Senior Reporter Emma Parry, who has been reporting on the Tupac murder for the past 10 years.
TUPAC fans have been waiting for justice for the iconic rapper for almost 28 years.
Finally in September 2023 there appeared to be progress with the arrest of Duane “Keefe D” Davis – a former Southside Crip gangster from Compton, LA – who had been telling the world for years that he and his fellow “gang soldiers” were responsible for the hit.
I’ve been reporting on the case for several years and it always appeared pretty cut and dry…Keefe had spent the past decade gaining notoriety by boasting about his alleged involvement in the shooting – now he was finally getting what he deserves. But despite Keefe running his mouth for years, I now believe a guilty verdict in November’s trial is far from guaranteed.
Keefe describes in great detail in his memoir Compton Street Legend what went down the night Pac was shot, extracts from which The U.S. Sun has published.
He claimed that he was offered a million dollars by rapper Diddy to “handle” Tupac and Suge Knight and when he and his Crip gangsters came across the pair driving near the Strip in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, Keefe alleged he passed the gun to his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson who took the shot. Keefe said if Pac had been on his side: “I would have blast”.
Keefe repeated the claims multiple times over the years, on YouTube channels, documentaries, and even in taped confessions to police, when he believed he could not be prosecuted. In one confession to the LAPD, Keefe appeared completely remorseless telling detectives: “We didn’t give a f**k…The ambulance [for Tupac] was parked right here next to us. That s**t was as funny as a motherf**ker.”
The Sun has been publishing stories about Keefe’s self confessed involvement in the crime since 2018.
I sent many links to his confessions to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, asking them why this man had not been arrested yet. They would thank me for the info but say that they could not comment because the case was still active. From the outside, it looked like no action was being taken at all.
We spoke to former detectives involved in the case and documentary makers who all felt utterly frustrated at the lack of progress in the case. We even published a plea from former LAPD detective Greg Kading, who had probed the murders, urging Las Vegas cops to arrest Keefe, back in 2020.
For years, the case appeared to have been forgotten and ignored, to be left forever unsolved.
But finally, in the summer of 2023, we got word from our sources that there had been a huge development in the case. A secret grand jury was due to be held on whether or not Keefe should be indicted. I was dubious at first but around the same time a house in Henderson, Nevada, linked to Keefe, was raided in July as part of the Tupac investigation.
Things were heating up.
Later that summer, behind closed doors, jurors listened to hours of testimony from former cops, detectives, and coroners involved in the Tupac case and gangsters and associates of Keefe’s and Pac’s from back in the day. They were shown graphic photos of Tupac’s bullet-ridden body. After days of evidence, they decided there was enough evidence to prosecute Keefe.
Once the secret documents were released I poured over the transcripts. While interesting, many of the witnesses were telling stories they’d heard second-hand. None of the prosecution witnesses had a clear look at who shot Pac. One witness Devonta Lee claimed another gangster called Big Dre took the shot – not Orlando. Maybe things weren’t as clear-cut as I first thought.
Keefe was then arrested on September 30, 2023 at his home. Bodycam footage we obtained from the scene showed Keefe bragging to cops even as he was handcuffed in the back of a police car – telling officers he was involved in the “biggest case in Las Vegas history”.
Following Keefe’s multiple appearances in court, he seems to have lost much of that bravado and now cuts a sad, lonely figure.
Suffering from various health problems as a result of cancer, he’s struggling to cope with the brutalities of jail life and can’t get together enough money to afford his bail. He feels some of his old Southside Crip associates – men he handed wads of cash to in his glory days, have just abandoned him.
Keefe is now desperate to get out of jail, and his defense stems is leaning on his claim that he completely made up his involvement in the Tupac murder for fame and money. He saw other people cashing in on the murder so he thought he would too. He reckons his confessions to police were all lies – he made it up because he was under a plea deal and thought it would help him beat his other charges.
And, according to his lawyer Carl Arnold, he wasn’t even in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. Arnold remains convinced he will see his client walk free and their secret weapon could be former Death Row Records boss Suge.
As the only other person still alive from either car, Suge, currently in prison for a fatal hit and run, would be a key witness. Suge is the only person still alive who knows what went down – he saw the shooter. While he’s said he won’t testify at the November trial, Suge has claimed in a TMZ interview from prison that Orlando was not the shooter, which again throws into doubt Keefe’s version of events.
Keefe and his lawyer are hoping they might be able to change his mind and persuade him to testify for the defense. And Suge holds the power to blow the prosecution’s case apart.
And if Keefe walks free, will there ever be justice for Pac?
Prosecutors have also submitted newly unearthed evidence in the same court filing which places Keefe in the city on the night of the murder.
Investigators said a room at the then-Monte Carlo Resort, now Park MGM, was booked under Keefe’s wife’s name, Paula Clemons, but as she was not a known Southside Crip, the reservation went under the radar.
It comes after The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed earlier this week how prosecutors were scouring through any paperwork or surveillance footage from the Monte Carlo Hotel in a bid to secure further evidence against Keefe.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to Keefe’s lawyer, and to representatives for Diddy, requesting comment on the latest court filing.
The latest court filings linking Diddy to Tupac’s murder come after he was accused of sex trafficking former porn star Adria English in a lawsuit filed earlier this month.
It was the latest in a string of lawsuits accusing the rap mogul of sex trafficking and sexual assault filed in late 2023 and 2024, all of which Diddy has denied.
Back in March, Diddy’s homes were raided by Homeland Security officials as part of a federal sex trafficking investigation.
At the time, Keefe, through his lawyer Carl Arnold, shot down claims that he had cooperated with federal authorities over the probe, telling The U.S. Sun he has not spoken to any officials.
A source close to Keefe added, “He wants it out there that he ain’t doing no deals or having nothing to do with them Feds in this Diddy thing.”