Tupac Murder Trial: Gang Testimony, Autopsy Photos Shown in Court
Testimony in the Tupac Shakur murder trial featured former gang members and autopsy photos, as prosecutors build their case against Duane Davis.
The Las Vegas murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the man accused of orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur, continued with dramatic testimony from former gang members and the presentation of graphic autopsy photos.
Some members of Shakur's family left the courtroom as prosecutors displayed the images on the second day of testimony. Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to charges he orchestrated the killing. His attorney has called the prosecution's narrative "fiction."
Prosecutors allege Shakur was killed in retaliation for an attack on Davis's nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, by Shakur's entourage hours earlier at the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson fight. Jurors were shown casino surveillance video of that beating.
Later that night, Shakur was shot while riding in a black BMW with Marion "Suge" Knight. Shots were fired from a white Cadillac containing Davis, Anderson, and two other men. Davis is not accused of being the trigger man.
James McDonald, a former associate of the Mob Piru Bloods who worked security for Knight, testified unwillingly under a court order. He brought both hostility and humor to the stand, declining to answer questions about why Anderson was targeted.
"I'm aware of a lot of things," McDonald said. "Things that was going on, people ain't talked about them in 30 years. Today ain't one of them." He added, "Me or anybody else bringing up the dead is wrong."
Reggie Wright Jr., a former Compton police officer who ran a security company contracted by Death Row Records, testified about rising tensions between the label and Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records. He said he had doubled Shakur's security after the release of the diss track "Hit 'Em Up," but noted Shakur had only one guard on the night of the shooting.