The ex-gang leader charged with killing hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur is facing new battery charges for a caught-on-camera prison brawl with a fellow inmate.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 61, was being escorted back to his cell at the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada last Thursday when another inmate, identified as Rochlon Hamilton, approached him with his fists showing, according to court documents obtained by Fox 5 Vegas.
Video shows Davis then tackling the shirtless Hamilton to the ground and putting him in a headlock as the pair traded blows on the prison floor, surveillance footage shows.
The pair ignored a prison guard’s repeated orders to break it and both were pepper sprayed, the report and videos show. The two continued fighting until more guards arrived and separated them.
Shakur’s accused killer later told officers that he was “standing his ground” and refused to speak further without his attorney present.
Davis and Hamilton, who is also locked up for murder, are both facing battery charges. Davis made an initial court appearance on Tuesday and is due back in court on Feb. 11, according to Fox 5 Vegas.
Davis had filed a motion earlier this month to toss the murder charges accusing him of orchestrating the 1996 hit of Shakur tossed claiming a lack of corroborating evidence and failure to honor immunity agreements granted to Davis by federal and local authorities.
He also alleged “egregious” constitutional violations because of a 27-year delay in prosecution.
However, Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny ruled last week that Davis isn’t protected against prosecution because he has not provided proof of immunity deals with law enforcement.
Davis’ trial in Las Vegas is currently scheduled to kick off on March 17 — but it could be delayed while he appeals the decision.
He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
The Compton, California native is accused of orchestrating the 1996 shooting that killed Shakur and wounded convicted criminal and rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight following a brawl at a Las Vegas casino involving the “California Love” rapper and Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Davis wrote in a 2019 memoir about his life as a Crips gang leader that he provided Anderson with the .40-caliber handgun he then fired from the back seat of a car at Shakur and Knight near the Vegas strip.
Shakur died from his wounds a week later in the hospital at the age of 25.
Knight survived the ambush and is currently behind bars serving a 28-year prison sentence in connection with the murder of a Compton man in 2015. Knight has said he won’t testify against Davis and that cops have the wrong man.
Davis is the last surviving suspect involved. Anderson, who had denied involvement in Shakur’s death, died in 1998 at age 23 in a shooting in Compton. Two other men who were in the car have also died.
Authorities never found the gun or the vehicle involved in the shooting.
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