Las Vegas lawyer who represented Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis in his trial for Tupac Shakur’s murder has died.
The body of Michael Sanft, 55, was discovered inside his Sin City home on Friday morning, his friend Michael Sloan told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
His cause and manner of death remain pending, and no further details have been released. Police said Sanft’s death doesn’t appear to be suspicious, according to the outlet.
Sanft’s death comes just one week after he filed a notice of appeal challenging Davis’ murder conviction on Oct. 30, court records obtained by Fox 5 Vegas show.
Davis, 63, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Oct. 13 after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for his role in the 1996 killing of rapper Shakur.
The rapper, 25, was shot four times in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas in September 1996 and died in a hospital six days later.
Davis was convicted of masterminding Shakur’s murder after he owned up to it while trying to dodge potential charges in 2008. He had repeatedly bragged about his involvement in the rapper’s killing, as he claimed credit for the shooting in his 2019 memoir.
Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, had been beaten up by Shakur inside the MGM Grand casino on the Las Vegas Strip hours before the deadly shooting. Anderson was identified as the gangster who fired the fatal shots while Davis orchestrated the ambush.
Davis is the first person to be charged in connection with the murder — while Anderson was killed in a shootout two years after Shakur’s death.
