BREAKING: Keffe D Attorney Michael Sanft Dies After Tupac Murder Trial

Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas attorney who represented Duane “Keffe D” Davis during the Tupac Shakur murder trial, has died, according to FOX5 Vegas.

The station reported Sanft’s death through sources. A cause of death was not included in the available report, and no additional circumstances were disclosed.

Sanft became one of the most visible lawyers in Hip-Hop’s longest-running murder case when he joined Davis’ defense team months before trial. He took the case without charging Davis and said his goal was to challenge the prosecution’s evidence without being limited by the family’s ability to pay.

The veteran attorney stepped into a case with material collected across several police agencies and the FBI. His team had only months to prepare for a trial involving decades of interviews, books, recordings and competing accounts of the shooting.

Davis was the only person charged in the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur. The rapper was shot near the Las Vegas Strip after leaving a Mike Tyson fight and died six days later at age 25.

The case finally went to trial in August. Prosecutors argued Davis helped organize the attack and provided the gun used in the shooting. The defense maintained that his public accounts were exaggerated stories that could not be trusted as proof of murder.

A jury rejected that argument and convicted Davis of first-degree murder. Sanft said afterward that the jurors moved too quickly through a large record and that the defense planned to challenge the result.

Judge Carli Kierny later sentenced Davis to 40 years to life. The sentence made the expected appeal the next phase of a case that had already stretched across three decades.

Sanft’s death leaves an immediate question about who will handle that work. Davis still has the right to pursue post-conviction review, but any change in counsel will require the new lawyer to absorb a large trial record and the arguments Sanft intended to raise.

No replacement attorney had been identified in the available reporting, and no briefing schedule was available. The court record will show how Davis’ representation changes as the appeal process moves forward.