Sean “Diddy” Combs is thousands of miles away from Las Vegas, but his name has surfaced in the Tupac Shakur murder trial.
Combs was mentioned Wednesday, Aug. 19, on day three of testimony as jurors heard part of a 2008 interview defendant Duane “Keefe D” Davis did with investigators.
Retired Los Angeles Police Department detective Daryn Dupree testified that he was part of a multi-agency task force investigating the 1997 killing in Los Angeles of rapper Christopher Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G.
Dupree said he specialized in gang-related homicides. According to his testimony, investigators grilled Davis in 2008 and 2009, before ruling him out as a suspect in Wallace’s murder.
On the stand, Dupree said Davis admitted taking part in another crime — Shakur’s 1996 killing.
“He said, ‘No,’ he didn’t have anything to do with that one [Biggie’s murder],” Dupree recalled Davis saying during a recorded interview. “Then he said, ‘We did the other one.’”
Related: Netflix Docuseries Alleges Diddy Involvement in Tupac and Biggie Murders
Dupree testified that investigators never mentioned Shakur, instead Davis brought up the killing.
“He offered that on his own,” the retired detective said. “It was a surprise to us. Number one, we were shook.”
Davis made the statements after receiving a proffer agreement, which offered him some immunity for information he provided to law enforcement. The former gang leader made similar claims in interviews and in his memoir, Compton Street Legend.
Dupree also testified that Davis alleged Combs played a role in the plot to kill Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
Jurors heard recordings from Davis’ proffer interviews as he claimed Combs offered money for the killings, with a bounty of $1 million allegedly discussed.
Davis suggested Combs paid New York City gangster Eric “Von Zip” Martin for the hit, and the money was supposed to be passed along to the West Coast gang members involved in the shooting.
Police have said Davis became an informant after the task force caught him “trafficking a large amount of drugs.”
Davis later traveled to New York with members of the task force as part of an undercover operation aimed at gathering evidence against Combs and Martin. However, the operation never produced enough evidence to bring charges.
Combs has repeatedly denied having any involvement in Shakur’s death. During a previous interview with “The Breakfast Club,” he dismissed the allegations as “nonsense.”
Combs is currently serving a 50-month sentence in federal prison in New Jersey on prostitution-related charges.
Meanwhile in court on Aug. 20, jurors heard audio from the 2008 interview Davis did with detectives when he claimed his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson fired the shots that killed Shakur, per the Associated Press.
The Compton gangsters were in Vegas for a boxing match.
Davis said he would have pulled the trigger himself, but he was sitting on the opposite of the car.
“If we would have been on my side, I would have blasted,” Davis said in the recording.
Instead, he said he passed his gun to Deandre “Big Dre” Smith. But Smith didn’t want to do it, said Davis. Anderson was also in the back seat, grabbed the gun and opened fire, according to Davis.
Shakur was shot multiple times on the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996, when a white Cadillac pulled alongside him, and someone opened fire. The “Dear Mama” rapper died from his injuries six days later at age 25.
As Urban Hollywood 411 previously reported, prosecutors outlined Davis’ claims involving Combs in a 2024 court filing seeking to keep Davis behind bars without bail.
Davis, a former Southside Compton Crips shot caller, is accused of orchestrating Tupac’s killing. He has pleaded not guilty to murder.
The three other men in the car with Davis on the night Shakur was shot have all since died or been killed themselves.
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