LAPD cop tells Tupac murder trial Diddy was behind shooting plot: Live updates

Former LAPD detective Daryn Dupree testified in court Wednesday that Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis told police that Diddy had tried to pay him to orchestrate Tupac Shakur’s murder.

Dupree, who was on the FBI Task Force in 2008, sat down with Davis to confirm Diddy wanted to pay Davis to ‘get rid’ of his Death Row arch-rivals Tupac and Suge Knight.

Davis had been a federal informant for over a decade at the time he gave his interview, and agreed to offer information to the FBI and US Attorney’s Office for he Central District of California in efforts to avoid jail time for a drug charge.

In court this week, Dupree confirmed that Davis was meant to receive hit money from gangster Eric ‘Von Zip’ Martin through Diddy in 1996.

‘Sean Puffy Combs was supposed to have given money to Zip Martin to give to Mr. Davis for payment of the Tupac murder,’ he said, referring to the FBI Task Force interview between Davis and Dupree.

‘Fast forward, we go to Mr. Davis, he says he can rekindle that relationship with Mr. Zip Martin and talk about the money that was given from Sean Puffy Combs to Mr. Martin that never got to Mr. Davis,’ he said.

Jurors are being played a police interview recording from 2008 that is anticipated to take up the rest of the afternoon.

Court began at 1pm PST and is supposed to last until 5pm PST.

The recording features Duane Davis, former LAPD detective Daryn Dupree, Greg Kading, a retired homicide detective and more.

During cross-examination, Lee testified that he was a DEA informant in 2006 who worked in the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program following his incarceration.

He denied informing the program of any crime outside of the information he was asked to provide by the group, but admitted they targeted Duane Davis as a drug dealer.

Davis is seen shaking his head multiple times inside the courtroom.

Devonta Lee recounted the afternoon that Orlando Anderson, also a member of the South Side Compton Crips, encountered trouble with Mob Piru and Death Row Records member Travon ‘Tray’ Lane at the Lakewood Mall in California.

As the group of Crips and Pirus noticed each other, they began to brawl.

Anderson and his associates snatched Lane’s Death Row Records medallion from around his neck.

The Lakewood Mall incident was the catalyst for Tupac and Death Row Records associates attacking Anderson at the MGM Grand hotel the night the rapper was shot.

A former member of the South Side Compton Crips, Devonta Lee, was called to testify after the jury was seated on Thursday.

He confirmed that he did not want to testify in the trial but he was court ordered to so. He was formerly affiliated with Crips associate Deandre ‘Big Dre’ Smith and Duane Davis’s nephew Orlando Anderson.

Lee said he joined the Crips in the nineties, and would have faced repercussions if he didn’t.

James McDonald, 61, described gang life in the 1990s to the prosecutors. He said that Tupac was someone he knew because he signed to Death Row Records and that he believed the rapper ‘inherited’ Suge Knight’s beef with others.

As questioning went on, McDonald said that he did not want to testify at the trial, and he had been forced to by a court order.

‘Living in Compton is one thing…but I told every attorney who tried to get me to come here “you better treat me like a hostile witness,”‘ he said.

Prosecutors addressed a rumor that Tupac had ‘knocked [him] out,’ to which McDonald swiftly replied: ‘I would’ve killed him. Him, Suge and my brother…I would’ve shot all three of them if they touched me. That’s how I was living.’

The man accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s murder personally handed the gun to the rapper’s killers in a twisted revenge plot, prosecutors alleged on Monday as one of America’s most notorious cold cases finally went before a jury.

Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 63, did not pull the trigger during the infamous 1996 Las Vegas drive-by, prosecutors conceded, but they claim he planned the retaliation, supplied the weapon and set in motion the shooting that killed the 25-year-old hip-hop icon.

‘Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation for the beating of his nephew,’ Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors.

‘Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.’

The state called on Dr Lisa Gavin, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner, to testify in court on Monday.

Although Dr Gavin was in medical school at the time of Tupac’s murder, she offered her professional opinion on his autopsy photographs.

The court saw pictures of Tupac’s body as Dr Gavin testified about the path of the bullets that entered his chest and abdomen that ultimately killed him.

Prosecutors noted that the rapper was ‘skinny’ when he was alive, but looked ‘bloated’ in death, which the medic confirmed was a result of expanded tissue.

Dr Gavin confirmed that the office had an affidavit from Tupac’s mother confirming that the body was that of her son and that he was dead.

The pictures were not broadcast to the public. Most of Tupac’s family members left the courtroom when the pictures were shown.

In cross-examination by the defense, Dr Gavin noted there were no records missing from the autopsy report, however, there were ‘few photos of the body itself,’ so ‘consequently, the crime scene analyst photos were helpful in order to come to a determination, in addition to the reports.’

Prosecutors believe that Davis organized Tupac Shakur’s shooting in retaliation for an attack on his nephew Orlando Anderson at the MGM Grand Las Vegas in September 1996.

Lawyers argue that the pair’s rival gang affiliations were foundational to the motive for Shakur’s killing, as Davis was affiliated with the South Side Compton Crips and Shakur was affiliated with the Mob Piru gang.

Davis wrote about the events leading up to Shakur’s death in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend, detailing his life as a gang member, who was in his circle and who was present the night that Shakur was shot.

As a result of his book and a series of BET docuseries episodes that aired in 2017, in which Davis discussed the incident in detail, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reopened the case.

Davis was indicted in 2023 on one count of murder with a deadly weapon in the rapper’s death, but prosecutors do not claim that he fired the fatal shots.

Due to the overseeing judge’s schedule/docket, court will not begin until 1pm PT/4pm EST today.

Wednesday was also a half day. There are a few days in the schedule over the month long trial that will require afternoon-only sessions.

Prosecutors in Tupac’s murder trial said that they would present a five-hour video as evidence to the court on Thursday.

Jurors will be tasked with watching the footage as the state argues its case.