Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson refused to rule out charging Sean “Diddy” Combs in Tupac Shakur’s murder if fresh evidence surfaces.
Wolfson, the top prosecutor in Las Vegas, addressed the possibility Tuesday at the Las Vegas Regional Justice Center following the conviction of Duane “Keefe D” Davis for the 1996 drive-by killing. The district attorney made clear that his office currently lacks what it needs to pursue Combs, 56, but left future options on the table.
“At this point, we don’t believe we have sufficient evidence to charge anyone else with the death of Tupac Shakur. But, like any other case, if we come into more information more evidence we can always consider filing additional charges. But today, we don’t believe that’s the appropriate move to make,” Wolfson said.
The prosecutor’s comments came after a jury took just three hours to find Davis, 63, guilty of murder with a deadly weapon with intent to promote a criminal gang. Davis had spent years confessing to his role as the “shot caller” who organized Compton Crips members to hunt down Shakur in September 1996, including in police interviews, media appearances, and a memoir. The attack was revenge for Davis’s nephew Orlando Anderson, who had been beaten by Shakur and others at the MGM Grand earlier that fatal night.
Davis’s claims about Combs first emerged during a 2008 LAPD interview at Hollywood’s Greenblatt’s Deli on the Sunset Strip. Recorded audio of that conversation was played for the jury, with Davis alleging Combs had repeatedly sought to eliminate Shakur and Death Row Records boss Suge Knight.
“Man I want to get rid of those dudes – man,” Davis claimed Combs said during their meeting. “Puffy was scared and was scared of the dude period,” he continued.
“We wanted a million,” Davis told police, adding that “we will wipe their a— out quick you know, it is nothing.” When an officer pressed him on who proposed the $1 million figure, Davis replied: “sh** he did. It wasn’t me.”
Davis further alleged that Combs had multiple conversations with him about a plot to “kill both of them.”
Combs has reportedly denied any involvement in Shakur’s death. A source close to the music mogul recently said that prosecutors would be wasting their time pursuing him.
“Diddy had absolutely nothing to do with the Tupac murder. He did not pull the trigger or set it up. It would be a waste of time if prosecutors ever called him as a witness,” the source said.
Judge Carli Kierny is scheduled to sentence Davis on October 13, with the convicted gang leader facing life in prison without bail.
The Shakur case represents a rare prosecution decades after a high-profile killing, with Davis’s own repeated admissions providing the foundation for charges that his defense argued were unreliable bragging. The verdict nonetheless established his central role in organizing the Vegas ambush.
Combs currently faces separate legal troubles, serving a four-year jail sentence on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.