Jail Call May Haunt Tupac Shakur Murder Case

The jail call also appears to reinforce Davis’s links to other figures around the case, including Devonta “Dirt Rock” Lee, who gave testimony before the grand jury and is expected to be a witness at trial. One law enforcement source said Davis’s own book describes him in the front passenger seat with a .40-caliber Glock picked up in Las Vegas, and says he later tossed the gun into the backseat after the group stocked up on Dom Perignon at a liquor store. The book also says that when Davis’s car pulled alongside Knight and Shakur near Club 662 around 11:15 p.m., “Pac pulled out a strap,” triggering the gunfire.

Davis, now 63, first came to wider attention in connection with the killing through Los Angeles detective Greg Kading’s 2011 book, “Murder Rap.” Kading identified Davis as being behind the hit, and authorities later questioned Davis in December 2008 while investigating the murder of Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace. At that time, Davis was under scrutiny in a separate narcotics case and was given a proffer agreement, which protected statements made in those interviews from being used in that investigation. Sources familiar with the case say Davis later misunderstood the limits of that agreement when he began speaking publicly about the killing and portraying himself as the “shot caller.”

The case sits at the center of one of hip-hop’s most infamous open wounds. Shakur and Knight were tied to Death Row Records, while Wallace and Sean “Diddy” Combs were linked to Bad Boy Records during the East Coast-West Coast feud that fueled diss tracks, retaliation claims, and multiple shootings. The violence surrounding that rivalry made police work far harder, since people in the rap and gang circles were unwilling to talk. Wallace was killed in a 1997 drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, and his death has long been seen as retaliation for Shakur’s murder.

By the time Davis was arrested near his Henderson, Nevada, home on Sept. 29, 2023, the case had already taken decades to develop. His lawyer, Mike Sanft, has said the district attorney’s case is weak and argued that Davis was exercising his First Amendment rights with his book, even if the material was in poor taste. Davis, meanwhile, sounded confident in the call, saying he had a strong lawyer who came out of retirement and that he planned to sue. The trial is expected to draw attention not only because of Davis’s alleged role, but because Knight is on the witness list and many fans still want the truth about the night Shakur’s life ended. For American readers, the case is a reminder of how a single unsolved killing can shadow music, law enforcement, and public trust for generations.