Keffe D just bought himself more time in the long-running legal saga tied to the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur, as a Las Vegas judge pushed his trial date back to August 10, 2026, giving his defense time to comb through a massive amount of evidence.
Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny approved the six-month delay after Keffe D’s attorney, Robert Draskovich, argued that the discovery was “voluminous” and required additional time to review. Prosecutors did not oppose the request, which moved the trial from its original February 2026 start.
Keffe D has been locked up at the Clark County Detention Center since his arrest in September 2023. The 60-year-old former Southside Compton Crips affiliate is accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting that killed Tupac near the Las Vegas Strip nearly three decades ago.
His legal team underwent a shake-up last August when he replaced his previous counsel with Draskovich and Michael Pandullo.
That change followed his conviction for fighting another inmate, which tacked on an additional 16 to 40 months to his sentence. He is receiving credit for time already served.
The case has been complicated by Keffe D’s own words.
Over the years, he’s repeatedly spoken about the night Tupac was gunned down, sometimes claiming he was in the car, other times saying he fabricated the story to sell books and land interviews. His current legal strategy hinges on the argument that he exaggerated or invented his involvement for profit.
Prosecutors allege the Crips gang member ordered the hit as retaliation for a casino altercation between Tupac and Keffe D’s nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that same night.
Authorities believe Keffe D was the one who gave the green light from inside the white Cadillac that pulled up next to Tupac’s BMW at a red light.
Anderson, long suspected of being the triggerman, was killed in a separate shooting in 1998.
Most of the other individuals tied to the case are also dead, making him one of the last living people with firsthand knowledge of what happened that night.
The delay gives Keffe D’s attorneys more time to sift through nearly 30 years of investigative material, including witness interviews, forensic reports and Keffe D’s own recorded statements from documentaries and media appearances.
The case represents one of Hip-Hop’s most notorious unsolved crimes and has hovered over the culture since Tupac died in a Las Vegas hospital on September 13, 1996. After decades of speculation and conspiracy theories, the trial could finally bring a public examination of the events that led to the rapper’s death.
By the time Keffe D stands trial in August 2026, he will have spent nearly three years in custody awaiting judgment in a case that has haunted Hip-Hop for generations.
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