Tupac Shakur murder trial in limbo after suspect loses lawyer
The murder trial for Tupac Shakur is expected to be delayed again after the suspect’s lawyer withdrew from the case.
Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis is accused of orchestrating 2Pac’s death, resulting in the rapper being shot in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996, and dying in the hospital on September 13th, 1996.
According to 8 News Now, his attorney, Robert Draskovich, told Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny that he was withdrawing as his representative on March 10th.
Keefe D was previously represented by the Clark County Public Defender’s Office, with Carl Arnold later serving as his lawyer until the middle of 2025. Draskovich then took over that summer.
His decision to withdraw came at a hearing that was intended to determine if an August 2026 trial date would be possible.
“This is a fairly involved case,” Draskovich said. “We were retained initially on this case in September. There’s been an issue concerning the terms of a retainer. And again, we need to bring investigators, experts.”
Draskovich said that the case would likely return to a public defender, despite Davis stating he was looking for a new lawyer. A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for March 31st.
When Draskovich began working with Keefe in August 2025, he said, “We anticipate presenting a competing narrative and a more truthful narrative concerning those events of September 1996. Our client was not involved in the shooting.”
Keefe D is currently jailed at the Clark County Detention Center in Nevada without bail. For now, his trial is still scheduled for August 10th.
If found guilty, he’s facing life in prison. He was arrested in September 2023 and charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon.