Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas attorney who represented Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the murder case involving Tupac Shakur, has died at the age of 55 just days after Davis filed an appeal.
Sanft was found dead at his home Friday morning. He had defended Davis, 63, who was convicted in the long-running, high-profile case surrounding Shakur’s 1996 killing.
The lawyer’s death came as Davis prepared to challenge his conviction. A notice of appeal was filed Friday, October 30, according to FOX5.
Davis was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on October 13 after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon in connection with Shakur’s death.
He was prosecuted after discussing the shooting in interviews and in a 2019 memoir. Davis remains the only person ever charged in the murder of the rap superstar.
Sanft, who took on the case pro bono, previously said he did not believe he could have handled the defense differently.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office said Sanft’s cause and manner of death had not yet been determined, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
A police spokesperson told the outlet that the death did not appear to be suspicious.
Las Vegas attorney Michael Sanft, who represented Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder case, has died at 55
Sanft, left, died as 63-year-old Davis prepared to appeal his conviction. Davis was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on October 13, when this photograph was taken
After the verdict, Sanft recalled speaking with Davis and admitting that he was “very disappointed in the jury’s decision.”
“He reminded me that this is phase one,” Sanft said, according to FOX5.
Sanft recalled Davis telling him, “Don’t worry about it, man.” The attorney replied, “I understand. I hate to lose.”
On September 7, 1996, Shakur was riding in the passenger seat of a black BMW driven by music executive Marion “Suge” Knight in Las Vegas when a white Cadillac pulled alongside them at a red light.
In his memoir, Davis said the shooting was motivated by a desire to retaliate after Shakur and members of his entourage had assaulted his nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that day.
Davis wrote that he was sitting in the Cadillac’s front passenger seat and handed the weapon to someone in the back.
Gunfire followed, striking Shakur several times. The rapper died six days later.
Davis had previously spoken with detectives but avoided prosecution under an agreement he reached with authorities.
During the weeks-long trial, prosecutors presented statements Davis had made about the killing. Following nine days of testimony in August, jurors deliberated for roughly three hours before returning a guilty verdict.
Sanft maintained that Davis’s statements in interviews and his memoir were fabricated, arguing that the prosecution’s case was built largely around those alleged admissions.
A cause of death for Sanft, shown with Davis in Clark County District Court, had not been disclosed as of Saturday morning
During the trial, Sanft argued that Davis had lied in interviews and memoir passages about Shakur’s 1996 murder
A jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder after hearing nine days of testimony in August
Marc DiGiacomo, a prosecutor in the Shakur case, described Sanft as “one of the premier defense attorneys in Las Vegas.”
“Las Vegas lost a good lawyer, and more importantly to me, I lost a friend,” DiGiacomo said Friday, according to the Review-Journal.
Michael Sloan, a Clark County District Court marshal who said Sanft was one of his closest friends, remembered him as “one of the best human beings I knew.”
Las Vegas attorney Mike Troiano also praised Sanft as “an extremely talented trial lawyer” who was admired by both jurors and fellow attorneys.
“I’m in total shock by this news, as is the legal community as a whole,” Troiano said, according to KSNV.
According to Sanft’s public biography, he was raised on the South Pacific island of Tonga before moving to San Diego, California, when he was 12.
The biography stated that Sanft had taken more than 150 cases to a jury verdict during his legal career.
Beyond the Davis case, Sanft represented former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore, who was accused of using approximately $70,000 intended for a memorial statue honoring a deceased police officer on personal expenses, including cosmetic surgery.
Fiore was convicted of federal wire fraud in October 2024. However, President Donald Trump pardoned her the following April, before she was sentenced.
“It’s extremely sad, and the community has lost a very caring, great attorney,” Fiore told the Review-Journal.
Our News Outlet has contacted the Clark County Coroner’s Office for comment.
