Las Vegas attorney Michael Sanft, who defended Tupac Shakur’s convicted killer, has died aged 55 just days after an appeal was filed against his client’s conviction.
Sanft was found dead at his home on Friday morning while Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis was preparing to challenge his 40-years-to-life sentence for the 1996 murder of the rap icon.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office said the cause and manner of Sanft’s death remained pending. A police spokesperson said the death did not appear to be suspicious.
Davis, 63, was sentenced on 13 October after being found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. A notice of appeal was filed on 30 October.
He is the only person to have been charged in connection with Shakur’s death. Prosecutors brought the case after Davis gave interviews and published a 2019 memoir describing his role in the shooting.
Sanft represented Davis without charge and later said: “I don’t see what I could’ve done differently.”
Shakur was sitting in the passenger seat of a black BMW with music executive Marion ‘Suge’ Knight in Las Vegas on 7 September 1996 when a white Cadillac pulled alongside them at a red light.
Gunfire erupted and Shakur was struck several times. He died six days later.
In his memoir, Davis said the attack was intended as revenge after Shakur and members of his entourage had assaulted his nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that day. Davis said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed a gun to the back, where the shots were fired.
Prosecutors relied on Davis’s own statements during the trial. After nine days of evidence in August, the jury reached its verdict following three hours of deliberations.
Sanft argued that Davis’s confessions were lies and that the prosecution’s case was built around them.
Reflecting on the verdict, Sanft said he had been “very disappointed in the jury”. He recalled Davis telling him: “Don’t worry about it, man,” to which he replied: “I understand, I hate to lose.”
