Sparks fly in court as judge considers bail bid for man charged in Tupac Shakur killing
CTV
Sparks flew in court Tuesday as a Nevada judge rebuked a defence attorney and an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader lashed out against prosecutors during his renewed effort to be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
Sparks flew in court Tuesday as a Nevada judge rebuked a defence attorney and an ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader lashed out against prosecutors during his renewed effort to be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny, who last month rejected Duane "Keffe D" Davis' bid to have a hip-hop music figure put up US$112,500 to obtain Davis' $750,000 bail bond, promised a decision on the bond question "in the next day or two."
First, though, she expressed doubts about the source of Davis' funds and scolded defence lawyer Carl Arnold -- accusing him of playing up the case to keep media attention on one of hip-hop music's most enduring mysteries.
"It seems like your plan, your end goal here, is to make some kind of show for the press of this trial," Kierny said.
"That's not my end goal here, your honour," Arnold responded. "My end goal is to win the trial. If they want to follow me with cameras, they can do that."
Arnold was recently featured in a British tabloid report that said he was fielding offers for a film crew to follow him working on Davis' behalf. The article quoted Arnold calling Shakur's death a "legacy" legal case and invoking the memory of Johnnie Cochran, a defence attorney for O.J. Simpson during his 1995 trial in Los Angeles. Cochran, who died in 2005, was famously credited with showing jurors a glove and saying, "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."
Davis has been held in a Las Vegas jail since his arrest last September. He stood in shackles and complained about police and prosecutors reviewing material compiled by a former Los Angeles police detective, Greg Kading, for a 2011 book about the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas and rival rap icon Christopher Wallace six months later in Los Angeles. Wallace was known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls.
