The second day of the Tupac Shakur murder trial featured testimony from a wide range of witnesses, with a wide range of attitudes toward the legal process:
asserted
day → feature → process
Dr. Lisa Gavin, a medical examiner, reviewed the autopsy report and photos of Shakur’s body, and said that the evidence showed his death was a homicide.
Some relatives of Shakur left the courtroom in response to the graphic photographs, while others looked away.
asserted
others → review → photographs
Former Las Vegas police detective Dean O’Kelley described responding to the scene of Shakur’s shooting, spotting the bullet cases in the middle of the street, and using traffic cones to try to protect the crime scene until investigators arrived.
asserted
investigators → describe → scene
“I told every attorney that tried to get me in here, you’d better treat me as a hostile witness,” James McDonald, an associate of Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, told the court, as he gave some details of reactions to Shakur’s shooting, but declined to answer other questions.
asserted
he → tell → questions
“Me or anybody else bringing up the dead is wrong.”
asserted
Me → bring → dead
James Wright Jr testifies he had nothing to do with Tupac's murder
James Wright Jr, a former Compton police officer who later led security for Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, was asked on the stand if he had anything to do with Tupac’s murder.
asserted
he → testify → murder
“Absolutely not,” he replied.
asserted
he → reply → ?
James Wright Jr, a former Compton police officer who later led security for Suge Knight’s Death Row Records, said the called his father, a Compton police officer, a few times the night of Shakur’s shooting, telling him what had happened and warning him that it might affect gang dynamics in Compton.
uncertain
it → lead → Compton
Based on what he had heard that night, Wright testified, he understood that Shakur and Knight had “they got into it in at the MGM with some guys from the Southside Crips” and “There’s going to be trouble in Compton.”
asserted
they → base → Compton
The next witness is Reggie Wright Jr., the former Death Row Records security chief that James McDonald, the previous witness, mentioned in his testimony.
asserted
McDonald → mention → testimony
Wright testified that he, like his father, was a police officer in Compton, and that he took a medical retirement from the police department in 1996.
asserted
he → testify → 1996
He described himself as “head of security” for Death Row Records, a role he held even during his last few years as a police officer.
asserted
he → describe → officer
Death Row Records’ founder, Marion “Suge” Knight, a man he had grown up with since elementary school.
asserted
he → grow → school
He and Knight had grown up about two blocks away from each other, in what was considered “Mob Piru” gang territory by the time Wright was a teenager, he said.
asserted
he → grow → time
He had “heard of” Duane “Keefe D” Davis while he was a Compton police officer, but he did not know him personally, Wright said.
“At one point he was known as a crackhead, but then later on Keefe was known as a drug dealer…[I] didn’t really enforce on the level of narcotics he was working,” Wright said.
asserted
Wright → hear → narcotics
A former associate of Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, James McDonald, grew heated on the stand under cross-examination from defense attorney Michael Sanft, and told the court that he was worried that the attorney’s questions would hurt his own client, Duane “Keefe D” Davis, who is on trial for Tupac Shakur’s murder.
“Do I answer this?” McDonald exclaimed at one point, looking towards the judge.
asserted
McDonald → grow → judge
“You asking something that’s going to hurt this dude,” McDonald then told Sanft, declining again to go into detail about the tensions in Compton in the weeks after the evening when Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson was in a Las Vegas hotel, and Tupac Shakur was then shot.
asserted
Shakur → ask → hotel
“Let me stop,” McDonald went on, putting both hands behind his head and blowing out a breath.
“When we got back to Compton, it was a gang war.
asserted
it → let → Compton
People were getting hurt,” McDonald went on.
asserted
McDonald → hurt → ?
“People were getting hurt.
asserted
People → hurt → ?
People was being sought.
asserted
People → seek → ?
People were looking for certain individulas from his neighborhood as well they did mine.
asserted
they → look → mine
But Orlando, him [gesturing to Davis] and certain other people were being soughted, because people wanted to kill them.”
asserted
people → gesture → them
Were they the only ones that they wanted to kill?” Sanft asked.
asserted
Sanft → want → that
“I’don’t even want to open this in here--No, they weren’t the only ones.
asserted
they → want → this
It’s his neighborhood in particular.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
They was in the middle,” McDonald said.
asserted
McDonald → say → middle
“…they were involved in what?”
asserted
they → involve → what
“In the murder of Tupac,” McDonald exclaimed.
asserted
McDonald → exclaim → Tupac
He then waved his arms in apparent frustration at Davis’ attorney’s questions.
asserted
He → wave → questions
“Talk to your lawyer, man, this dude is tripping,” McDonald said, refusing to clarify who exactly was present at Tupac’s shooting and then told people in Compton what had happened.
asserted
what → talk → Compton
'I don't want to send you to prison,' Suge Knight associate tells Duane Davis from stand
Asked again about the tension between Compton factions after Shakur’s shooting, this time by Michael Sanft, Duane Davis’ attorney, McDonald once again refused to go into detail.
asserted
McDonald → want → detail
“I don’t want to send him to prison, even though we don’t like each other,” McDonald said, apparently pointing to Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis, who is sitting in the courtroom directly behind his attorney.
asserted
who → want → attorney
“I don’t want to send you to prison,” McDonald repeated.
asserted
McDonald → want → prison
A reaction shot of Davis on the courtroom livestream showed no reaction from a grim-faced Davis.
asserted
shot → show → Davis
“I changed my life.
asserted
I → change → life
I’m raising my grandkids, teaching them never to be like their Pawpaw, and here I am, explaining to people what I used to be, and I’m not proud of that, I’m not proud of that at all,” McDonald went on.
asserted
McDonald → raise → that
“You’re asking me questions that can hurt him, and like I told them, I’m trying to avoid to answer the questions.”
asserted
I → ask → questions
James McDonald, the former associate of Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight, is now being cross-examined by a defense attorney for Duane “Keefe D” Davis.
asserted
McDonald → cros → Davis
McDonald, who said he was working as head of security for Knight’s Club 662 on the night Shakur was shot, is now answering questions about the size of the club and where the Las Vegas police were in relation to the club—posted outside, not inside, and not there at the request of Reggie Wright, then head of security for Death Row Records, McDonald said.
asserted
McDonald → say → Records
…and 61 more, not listed.
The Aporia
