The murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis has brought renewed attention to long-running allegations involving Sean “Diddy” Combs and the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur.
Just days after proceedings got underway, jurors in Las Vegas heard testimony from retired LAPD Detective Daryn Dupree about statements Davis allegedly made tying Combs to a payment connected to Shakur’s assassination.
“Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs was supposed to had given money to Zip Martin,” Dupree testified on Aug. 20, according to the court feed, “to give to Mr. Davis for payment of the Tupac murder.”
The alleged payment has previously been reported as $1 million, according to ABC News.
Dupree’s testimony echoed claims that have circulated for years around the Tupac Shakur murder case, placing fresh courtroom focus on Davis’ prior statements about Combs, Zip Martin and an alleged payoff.
Still, law enforcement authorities have never identified Combs as a central figure in Shakur’s death. Combs, who is currently jailed on two counts of transportation for prostitution, has also denied any involvement in the rapper’s killing.
Davis’ own lawyer, Michael Sanft, sought to distance his client from past claims during opening statements, telling the court that Davis was “full of crap” when he previously boasted about having any role in Shakur’s death, according to the AP.
Attempts to reach Sanft for comment were unsuccessful.
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Also on Aug. 20, jurors heard audio from a 2008 interview between Davis and detectives where he claimed his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson had fired the shots that killed Shakur, per the AP. (Anderson died from an unrelated shooting in 1998.)
After his 2023 arrest, Davis was charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged Davis orchestrated the 1996 shooting of the 25-year-old rapper, providing his nephew with a gun and instructing him to fire the fatal shots as they approached a car carrying both Shakur and Suge Knight near the Las Vegas strip.
The jury watched video of Shakur’s entourage attacking Anderson outside a boxing match at the MGM Grand hours before Shakur was shot.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said in his opening statement that Davis spent the next two hours planning an “act of revenge” for the attack.
“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” Palal told the jury. “Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”
Earlier in the trial, Combs was also mentioned during former Death Row Records associate James “Mob James” McDonald’s testimony as he discussed the infamous rivalry between Knight’s label and Combs’ Bad Boy Records, according to the court feed.
McDonald claimed Shakur essentially “inherit[ed] the beef between Suge Knight and [Combs].”
