Tupac Murder Trial Witness Says He Knows ‘Everybody That Was There,’ Refuses to Name Them

A former Death Row Records associate refused to identify people he said were present on the night Tupac Shakur was fatally shot, repeatedly telling an attorney that he did not want his testimony to help send Duane “Keffe D” Davis to prison.

James “Mob James” McDonald, a former Mob Piru Bloods member who provided security for Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, testified under subpoena Tuesday on the second day of Davis’ murder trial in Clark County, Nevada. McDonald said he was working at Knight’s Las Vegas nightclub, Club 662, when he learned that Shakur and Knight had been shot in a drive-by attack on Sept. 7, 1996.

During cross-examination, Davis’ attorney Michael Sanft questioned McDonald about what he learned after the shooting and who had been present. McDonald became increasingly reluctant to answer, at one point telling the attorney that his questions could hurt Davis.

“I know everybody that was there,” McDonald testified. When Sanft asked him to identify them, McDonald refused and appeared to address Davis directly, telling him to speak with his attorney. McDonald added that he was not going to provide information that could help send Davis to prison.

McDonald did testify about the violence that followed Shakur’s shooting, describing a “gang war” between the Mob Piru Bloods, associated with Knight, and the South Side Compton Crips, of which prosecutors say Davis was a prominent member. McDonald said information about the shooting spread quickly after people returned to Compton and that Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson and others believed to be connected to the attack became targets for retaliation.

Prosecutors allege Shakur’s shooting was retaliation for a confrontation earlier that night at the MGM Grand, where Shakur and members of his entourage attacked Anderson, Davis’ nephew. Davis is not accused of firing the fatal shots. Prosecutors instead allege that he obtained the gun used in the attack and helped organize the retaliation.

Anderson was never charged in Shakur’s killing and died in an unrelated gang shooting in 1998.

McDonald also told jurors that he has since left gang life and is focused on raising his grandchildren. He said he did not want to revisit events that people had avoided discussing publicly for nearly 30 years and made clear that his reluctance extended to providing information that could incriminate Davis.

After McDonald was excused, Reggie Wright Jr., who served as Knight’s head of security, testified about the people accompanying Shakur and Knight on the night of the shooting. Wright identified McDonald’s brother, Alton “Buntry” McDonald, as part of the entourage that attended a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand before the confrontation with Anderson.

Surveillance footage from the casino has become part of the prosecution’s account of the events leading to Shakur’s shooting. Prosecutors argue the attack on Anderson provided the motive for the retaliation later that night.

Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to murder with use of a deadly weapon. His defense argues that statements Davis made over the years describing his involvement in Shakur’s killing were fabricated or exaggerated for entertainment and financial gain. Prosecutors are relying heavily on those statements as evidence that Davis helped organize the attack.

The trial continued Thursday with testimony from former Davis associate Denvonta Lee. Prosecutors later began playing jurors a 2008 police interview in which Davis identified Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson as the person who fired the shots that killed Shakur.