Day two begins of the Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas
We’ll be sharing live updates today from the second day of the Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas.
Nearly 30 years after the iconic artist’s killing, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, a former South Side Compton Crips gang leader, faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the 1996 shooting. Prosecutors are alleging that Davis helped orchestrate the shooting, though he is not accused of being the gunman. Davis has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s an overview of what we know about Tupac Shakur’s death and what to expect from this murder trial. And here are some key takeaways from yesterday’s opening arguments.
Key events
District Court Judge Carli Kierney relayed a few questions directly from the jury to medical examiner Dr. Lisa Gavin.
“Where there any wounds to the head that you or Dr. Jordan observed or noted?”
“No, there were not,” Gavin said.
“Were all the bullets found of the same caliber?”
Gavin said she did not know.
Michael Sanft, the defense attorney for Duane Davis, asked expert witness Dr. Lisa Gavin, a medical examiner, if there were any records missing from the autopsy report done by the late Dr. Jordan.
Gavin said there were not anything missing, but noted that there were relatively few photos were taken during the autopsy, “and so we had 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.”
Dr Lisa Gavin testified that the Nevada coroner’s office records identifying Tupac Shakur’s body include “medical records, some photographs, the autopsy report, the investigation report and the toxicology report”. She also confirmed that the office had an affidavit from Shakur’s mother confirming that the body was that of her son and that he was dead.
“He died of gunshot wounds of chest and abdomen,” Dr. Lisa Gavin said. She confirmed the manner of death was “homicide … death at the hands of another.”
Vanessa Murphy, an investigative reporter for 8News Now in Las Vegas, is reporting live from the Nevada courtroom. She noted that “during this portion where pics of the body of Tupac Shakur were shown, most family members of Tupac Shakur left the courtroom.”
The photographs of Shakur’s body, which are being described in court but not shown on the trial live stream, showed evidence of the medical attempts to save his life after he was shot, Dr. Lisa Gavin confirmed.
Shakur was shot on 7 September 1996, and died in a Las Vegas hospital on 13 Sept, 1996.
Dr. Lisa Gavin, a forensic pathologist in Clark County, Nevada, is now testifying as an expert analyst, reviewing the report and photos of Tupac Shakur’s body from his autopsy. Highlighting the challenges of holding a murder trial 30 years after a death actually occurred, the medical examiner who actually conducted the autopsy has since died. Gavin noted that she was in medical school in 1996, but has years of experience in interpreting evidence.
The second day of the Tupac Shakur’s murder trial began with more audio from a years-old interview between Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is accused of orchestrating Shakur’s shooting, and Fred Miller, a former Los Angeles police detective who had investigated Davis in connection with the 1997 murder of Christopher Wallace, the rapper known as Biggie Smalls or the Notorious BIG. Attorneys continued to play a lengthy audio recording of Miller questioning Davis in 1997.
As reported yesterday, Davis was present at a party that Wallace had attended before he was shot, but Davis’s attorney emphasized he was not charged in Wallace’s murder, and the judge told jurors that law enforcement did not believe Davis was involved.
If you’re catching up now on what’s happened so far in th Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas, here is video of key evidence presented to the Las Vegas jury yesterday:
The court heard brief testimony from Thomas Kern, who was a crime scene analyst for the Las Vegas police department in 1996, who was present at the autopsy of Tupac Shakur, and is authenticating evidence from the autopsy. Kern did not face any cross-examination.
Day two begins of the Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas
We’ll be sharing live updates today from the second day of the Tupac Shakur murder trial in Las Vegas.
Nearly 30 years after the iconic artist’s killing, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, a former South Side Compton Crips gang leader, faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the 1996 shooting. Prosecutors are alleging that Davis helped orchestrate the shooting, though he is not accused of being the gunman. Davis has pleaded not guilty.
Here’s an overview of what we know about Tupac Shakur’s death and what to expect from this murder trial. And here are some key takeaways from yesterday’s opening arguments.
