Keefe D Gets 120-Day Deadline In Tupac Murder Appeal

Keefe D now has a deadline to challenge his Tupac Shakur murder conviction after losing the attorney who took him through trial.

The Nevada Supreme Court has docketed the appeal and ordered his attorneys to submit their opening brief within 120 days, according to KTNV.

The case moves into that next stage with a 40-years-to-life sentence hanging over the 63-year-old. Judge Carli Kierny handed down the punishment on October 13 after jurors convicted him of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.

His defense now faces the loss of Michael Sanft, whose death was reported November 6 after he represented Keefe D during the trial.

Sanft had already made clear that the defense intended to challenge the guilty verdict rather than let the sentencing end its fight.

At trial, the prosecution put Keefe D in the group seeking retaliation after Tupac and his associates fought his nephew Orlando Anderson. Prosecutors argued that he obtained the gun used in the shooting, building their case around his recorded accounts and public statements.

The defense challenged whether those accounts could be trusted, arguing that stories told in interviews and a memoir were exaggerated for money.

Jurors also heard evidence beyond those statements, including surveillance footage of the MGM Grand fight and testimony about his documentary interviews.

Keefe D didn’t testify during the trial, leaving jurors to weigh his earlier words instead of hearing him answer questions on the stand. They returned their verdict on August 31 after less than three hours of deliberations.

The appeal follows a prosecution over the September 7, 1996, shooting near the Las Vegas Strip while Tupac rode with Suge Knight. Tupac died six days later at age 25, leaving a case that remained without charges for decades.

Police arrested Keefe D in September 2023, nearly 27 years after the fatal shooting.