‘I don’t want to send you to prison’, witness tells Tupac accused in combative testimony
Tupac Murder Trial: Witness Confronts Accused, Says He Does Not Want Him Behind Bars
A Reluctant Witness Takes the Stand
Ninoda.com – On the second day of the retrial surrounding the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, a former member of the late star's inner circle clashed with the court over his obligation to speak. James "Mob James" McDonald, who had served as an enforcer under Suge Knight at Death Row Records and belonged to the Mob Piru offshoot of the Bloods, told the judge he felt compelled to testify under threat of a contempt finding.
Pressed repeatedly by defence counsel Michael Sanft to name those responsible for Shakur's death, McDonald pointed toward the defendant and pushed back.
"You're asking me something that wouldn't be good for him," he said, gesturing at Duane "Keffe D" Davis.
He then turned his gaze directly on the accused and offered a plea that drew attention in the courtroom.
"I don't want to send you to prison."
McDonald declared himself a "hostile witness" and refused to answer several lines of questioning, raising his voice and arms while insisting that cooperation would damage the defendant's position.
"Talk to your lawyer man, this dude is tripping," he told Sanft at one point.
"I don't want to send him to prison, even though we don't like each other. I don't want to send you to prison," he added, looking at Davis, who sat in a suit with a blank expression.
"You're asking me questions that can hurt him," McDonald told the defence attorney, visibly exasperated.
The Charges Against Davis
Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, faces a murder charge and is accused of planning the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur. He has entered a not-guilty plea. Prosecutors contend that Davis orchestrated the attack after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, got into a physical altercation with Shakur in Las Vegas just hours before the shooting. The theory of the case holds that Davis believed the assault on his family member could not simply "go unanswered."
Shakur, aged 25, was shot on a Las Vegas street on 7 September 1996 following a Mike Tyson boxing match. He died in hospital six days later. The trial now underway arrives three decades after that death, seeking closure on one of America's most notorious unsolved killings.
Street Code and the Gang Landscape of the 1990s
The shooting unfolded against a backdrop in which street gangs exerted heavy influence over the hip-hop world, informal codes of silence kept witnesses away from police, and deep mistrust of law enforcement persisted in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict and the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
Shakur himself, lying in an ambulance after being hit, declined to brief a responding officer on what had occurred. Instead he reportedly told the cop, "we'll take care of it."
Thirty years later, McDonald appeared torn over breaking that same code of silence. Though he described having little affection for Davis, he remained hesitant as he recounted events on Tuesday. He explained that although he was not present at the moment of the shooting, members of Shakur's entourage who were there had swiftly relayed who they believed was responsible.
"It was a gang war. People were getting hurt. People were being sought," he said.
"Orlando (Anderson), him and certain other people were being sought because people wanted to kill them."
He described Davis and his nephew as central figures in that conflict.
"They were the main subjects of a gang war — they were in the middle," McDonald said, noting that he himself had been part of the same feud.
As his testimony drew to a close, McDonald addressed Davis directly.
"What you are going through brother is what you going through. I don't want to be a part of it."
Wright Testimony and the Defence's Alternative Theory
Reggie Wright Jr, who had served on Shakur's security detail and went on to become general manager of Death Row Records in 1997, also took the stand on Tuesday. Days before trial began, Davis had publicly suggested the evidence pointed instead toward Wright, a former Compton police officer.
Sanft questioned Wright about his duties protecting Suge Knight, who had been riding in the same vehicle as Shakur at the time of the shooting, and about how his responsibilities expanded after Knight departed the label.
"And then you became general manager," Sanft observed, noting that once Knight was out of the picture, Wright assumed control of Death Row Records.
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