Josh Margolin
Appearances
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
And so that leads us to when they raid his home in, what, 2023? So when police come to raid a home with a search warrant, in many ways, that's basically a press conference. That's a public act. They're kind of announcing to the world what they're up to. So they had most of their case locked down, at least the case that they believed they could proceed with.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Tupac Shakur. He was in Las Vegas. He was in a BMW being driven by Suge Knight, the famous larger than life rap mogul, the leader of Death Row Records. Taking us all back to the 90s. And they had just come from a Mike Tyson fight. And Tupac was hanging out the window of the Beamer. They were driving on the strip, off the strip.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
There were a couple of I's they wanted to dot, T's they wanted to cross. They did want to see if he had any guns in the home. And if any of those guns might match ballistics for the shooting, that would be icing on the cake. But yes, so that brings them to the raid. And then soon after the raid, they proceed with the arrest.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So like what happened here? We have been wanting to be able to interview him since he was arrested. It was clear almost from the get-go that they were going to use his own words against him. He was going to be his own worst enemy. The key witness for the prosecution was going to be the guy charged himself. So we obviously wanted to find out, hey man, why did you say all this stuff?
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
They're going to hang you for it. We had not been able to get access. You know, look, lawyers, they don't want their clients talking before trial. They certainly don't want them talking to news organizations because they're worried, you know, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Well, anything you say can and will be used against you.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So they don't want any of that happening. But finally... Kifidi said that he would meet with us and we got special permission to have an in-person interview, not just a Zoom. We were going to be able to interview him one on one sitting in the same room. So we went to Las Vegas with our cameras all ready to go. At the appointed time, the corrections officers escorted him into the room.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
What happened? So we sit down with him. We spend about an hour with him. He talks about a whole range of things. Importantly, Brad, he tells us that he didn't do it, that he is innocent. He says that he was not even in Las Vegas at the time that Tupac was killed. Wait, but he said he... Then what does that do with the story he told everyone? And we got into a lot of stuff. Let me first say this.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
We spent a lot of time talking with him, everything from his history in Compton to the fact that even though he says that he didn't kill Tupac and wasn't part of the killing of Tupac, that Tupac's killing has actually caused a huge problem for his life ever since it happened, which, I mean, look, if he's innocent and he's sitting in jail for a crime he didn't commit, that's bad.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
But we went through it and he had a lot of answers.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
He explains them in different ways. He goes back and he says, first, the confessions that he gave to law enforcement. He thought that he had an immunity deal, that he is free and clear from any of that stuff being entered and used against him.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
That's what he's saying. So then the question is, why would you lie if you're being interviewed by police and nothing can be used against you? He says that there was this drug case that had been built against him. And it was not only against him, but there were dozens of other possible defendants. And so he told the lie because there was no penalty for lying.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
He just lied to save people from going to jail.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
They had an entourage of cars, both Tupac's security, but also there were fans, groupies, who were following them in their own cars. It was a whole scene. And remember, it's Vegas on a fight night. So it is loud and big and... The world's eyes are on Las Vegas. And then at a red light, shots ring out.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
That's his first explanation about why he told the story confessing. Okay. But he didn't just tell it to law enforcement. Well, right. And then he says the reason why he repeated it in interviews down the road, he says he told that story for money. It was basically entertainment. People wanted to hear the story.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So he told the story, he says, in terms of the memoir, he says not only did he not participate in writing it, he didn't actually read it.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Like, does he point the finger at anyone? He points the finger at somebody that we have interviewed, a guy named Reggie Wright Jr., who is a former Compton police officer who ultimately had worked for Suge Knight doing some security. Reggie is well aware that Keefy D has tried to point the finger at him in the past, and he has a pretty detailed explanation about why that's not accurate. And
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
how he feels about that. He's very disturbed by it, he says.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Kifidi's got a pretty elaborate type of response. He first says he was not even in Las Vegas at the time. He was home in Los Angeles. He says that there are dozens of witnesses who can corroborate his alibi.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
He also talks about how he's assured that even though he doesn't like the way that law enforcement works in Las Vegas, that his original confessions to law enforcement are covered by immunity, and that even if he gets convicted in Las Vegas, he's confident the appeals courts are will ultimately reverse any kind of conviction because immunity is immunity is immunity.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Yeah, I was going to say, what's next then for Kifidi legally? So there's a bunch of different things in the legal system that he's facing. First off, Kifidi was involved in a jailhouse fight and he has since been charged with battery. Oftentimes, a jailhouse fight really won't go to trial. They plead it out. It's kind of secondary.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Certainly, somebody who's facing murder charges, a small jailhouse battery accusation is... kind of minor in this case prosecutors are pushing for either a plea where he admits to it or they want to convict him at trial and prosecutors have the strategy in mind that if they can use the jailhouse fight to show that Keefy D is a violent guy. That helps build their case.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Exactly, because just the part of the defense so far has been that even though Keefy might have had drug and other kinds of crimes in his history as a young man, that as an older man, he's no longer a threat to the community. So what prosecutors want to do is they want to show that a guy who's over 60 and has survived cancer, that he's still a threat because he's still violent. So that's the goal.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So he's going to face trial on that count in April 2025. That's the first thing. Second thing is that the judge has set a tentative trial date for February 2026 on the Tupac homicides. Originally, the Tupac homicide was supposed to go to trial this year, first half of this year.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
But the judge, acknowledging the vast amount of evidence, the fact that we're talking about a lot of old files, older people, some complexities, obviously, A lot of people that are connected to the case are no longer alive. The judge gave them a delay until February 2026. And so we're fully expecting that's what the future holds.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Before anyone realizes what has happened, Suge Knight in the driver's seat of the Beamer is injured. He actually would later say that he thought he was dead or going to be dead. And Tupac Shakur is injured very, very seriously, gravely, rushed to a hospital.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
KVD has tried to get out of jail, to get bailed out and to await trial. from home. The judge has been reluctant to go along with that. She's taken issue with the bail packages, quote unquote. It's what they call them, the money that would be supporting the bail. So she's made him sit in jail. That's another thing that he has taken issue with and he raised in our interview.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
It's a little bit hard to say. First off, I cover crime and I still am stunned and unpleasantly surprised that it took so long for law enforcement to be able to make an arrest in this kind of a case. It is a different time. You didn't have the ubiquity of traffic cameras and cell phone cameras. 1996 is a whole different era when it comes to technology. So you didn't have all of that.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
You didn't have people on Twitter immediately saying, hey, this person just got shot on the street. But if we were to take this back in time, let's say, God forbid, that Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
At that time, Tupac Shakur was as big a music act and entertainer as there is. We're talking about Frank Sinatra. For that generation, that's what we're talking about. He was only 25. He had already started appearing in films. He was all over culture. He actually, according to people who know rap music, and by the way, I am not one of those people who know rap music. On the record.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
But according to people who know rap music, he was in the process of of changing the genre, which rap was only coming into its own at that point in the mid-90s. Think about it. It really had only developed in the inner cities and was below the surface through the 80s and then the early 90s. Tupac was larger than life.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Well, that's the other thing. So you have Tupac is rising to this level of stardom and the experts were saying that he was about to launch into like super stardom, like Madonna-level stardom at that point. And at the same time, you have to go back in time to what's happening in the world of crime and street culture. And that's the stuff I do know.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So we're talking about a situation where we have the explosion of the crack wars, the drug wars in the inner cities, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago. Simultaneously, the explosion of the gang wars. the battling between the Crips and the Bloods, the Red and the Blue.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
At the same time, you end up having groups of rap artists who are connected to East Coast record labels and West Coast record labels. And they are feuding. The record labels are feuding. the artists end up getting caught up in the feuding. And then you have the gangs that according to law enforcement, according to the experts, these gangs that are aligned with these individual record labels.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So the gangs are part of the feuding. Now, Very quickly, you're looking at me and you're saying, wow, that's actually a recipe for violence. And the answer is yes. A lot of money, legitimate money in the music industry. Then there's illegal money floating around through the drugs that are being peddled by the gangs. Then you have the artists.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
In the midst of this really, really toxic situation, really dangerous situation, With a lot of guns floating around, Tupac Shakur is gunned down off Las Vegas Boulevard. Tupac is shot point blank. How did the investigation proceed after that? Right after Tupac is gunned down, the investigation starts and it's aggressive. There's just no question about it.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
It's not a broad daylight homicide because it's nighttime, but it's basically a public homicide of a high profile celebrity. The cops are all over it. You really have two key witnesses here, including Suge Knight, who lived through the attack and was in the driver's seat.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
it very quickly though becomes obvious to law enforcement that they're going to get no cooperation from anybody that has direct involvement because now we're talking about people who are connected to gangs There's the code of the streets. We don't talk to the cops. We don't snitch.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
In fact, later on, Brad, Suge Knight sat down with ABC News and he was asked about the crimes and homicides and all these various things that he knows about. And he was very, very clear that he doesn't get paid to solve homicides. So what happens next? So you have Tupac has gone down in Vegas. Then a few months later, you have the notorious BIG, Biggie Smalls, who's gone down in Los Angeles.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
And so you have the whole culture, the newspapers at the time, radio, TV, everybody's talking about this violent East Coast, West Coast rap war that has broken out. Ultimately, both of these crimes go unsolved into 2000, 2010, 2020. And then finally, something happens. And we don't really at this point know what in 2023, but something has happened. A switch has been flipped.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
somehow in Las Vegas, and they are going to go and search the home of an alleged former member of the Crips, who happened to move from LA and was now living outside of Vegas in Henderson, Nevada. They were going to search his home. I have to tell you, when I got the phone call from a source saying that we just searched the home of this guy in connection with Tupac,
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
I'm like, you have got to be kidding me. You're telling me that you did a... First of all, what could you possibly be searching for? It's all these years ago. It's 1996. Are you saying that somebody's got a bloody t-shirt or something? My source said, we think it's him. They went ahead. They searched the home of Dwayne Davis. A few months later, they ended up arresting him.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
And he has been in jail awaiting trial ever since. But who is this guy? So Dwayne Davis, he goes by a street named Keefy D. He was a kid who grew up in Compton, California in Los Angeles. And he disputes that he was ever in the Crips. So police and prosecutors say that he was not only a member of the Crips, but that he was a quote unquote shot caller. He was a big deal.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
He was a leader of the gang. And so if he gave an instruction, that was an instruction that had to be followed. Which he denies, but there we go. He denies that he was ever in the Crips. What he doesn't deny is that after having a pretty good athletic career in high school, because of the neighborhood, because of the crime and the gangs and the drugs and everything,
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
all the various cultural and social ills that we're so familiar with that timeframe in LA, he falls into the drug trade and he winds up becoming a pretty well-established high volume drug dealer in Compton. And he ultimately does go to prison on drug charges. He admits to that and he explains it in a way that's very understandable.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
That was basically, there was a lack of a future in that area for him. He actually grew up in Compton, California, and that's where Suge Knight is from. And they ended up being on different sides. In the years since, Suge has been reported to be connected to the Bloods street gang. And Dwayne Davis, Keefy D, who we interviewed, he's reported to have been connected with the Crips street gang.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So Suge and Davis are on opposite sides of the gang wars.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
There's a really strange winding road that brings us to how Kifidi winds up in jail and charged with Tupac's homicide. The authorities in Los Angeles in the 2000s are getting to the point where they're taking another crack at trying to solve the homicide of Notorious B.I.G., which occurs in Los Angeles after Tupac. They end up building a drug case against Keith E.D., In the biggie thing.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
In the biggie thing. As the story goes, they end up getting him cornered on the drug charges and they give him an out. If you cooperate with us, we will give you a sort of get out of jail free card, kind of an immunity kind of deal. There are a lot of particulars, and there's a lot of fighting over what actually went into this negotiation.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
But that's the rough outline of it, that there was this offer of immunity in return for information.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
He basically told the cops, I don't know anything about Biggie, but I know about Tupac. I can give you info on the Tupac hit in Las Vegas. So that's 2008. In 2009, the Las Vegas police are given access to Kifidi, to Dwayne Davis, on the basis of the discussion from 2008. He says to us that he thinks he has immunity. So whatever he says can't be used against him.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
When he meets with Las Vegas police in 2009, he basically repeats the same story. And what does he say? Davis basically says that there was a car that he was in. He's sitting in the front passenger side.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
there's a driver and then there are two people behind him in the back seat in that car okay they had come from the mgm after the tyson fight there was some sort of a fight between patrons at the casino tupac somehow was involved in this fight On the other side was Orlando Anderson. Orlando Anderson was reported to be a member of the Crips.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Tupac was allegedly, according to law enforcement, he was with members of the Bloods. So that's where the gang thing circles back into this story. He's in this car with Keefy D after the fight, and they want payback. So they go looking for Tupac. They end up finding him coincidentally on this road off the strip where he ends up stopping at this light.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
And they find him because there are so many groupies and fans who are following the car being driven by Suge Knight with Tupac hanging out the window. They find him. They see him. So according to Keefy D, car that he's in with Orlando in the backseat, pulls up alongside the car and shots ring out. prosecutors ultimately charge that because he was the quote-unquote shot caller, he called the shot.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
The gun was handed to the back seat. The gun is then fired because the car with Suge and Tupac needed to be fired upon in an act of revenge for the earlier fight.
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The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
Right. So Kifidi puts himself on record with authorities twice, 2008, 2009. Then additionally- Over the course of time from 2009 to 2023, he repeats this story several times. In one now famous clip in a documentary about death row records, he puts himself in the car and he talks about how this shooting went down, but he doesn't want to actually say who the trigger man was.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
He says he's going to keep that for the code of the streets. In another interview, he does actually give more information. He ultimately releases a memoir titled, where he's one of the co-authors, a memoir of his life, and he talks about this. And this is in 2019, right? So he's implicating himself in writing them. Right.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
And so after the arrest, and as we're trying to investigate the investigation, and we spent a long time doing this, going back and forth to Las Vegas, to Los Angeles, interviewing all these various people who are directly involved, we were trying to figure out, first of all, why didn't they charge him back in 2009?
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
If he confessed then, it seems kind of like law and order that the first thing you do is go arrest the guy, right? So we wanted to find out what was going on with that, but he subsequently gives these additional accounts confirming his account originally that he was there in the car.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
so vegas police it turns out in all those years they were following this case vegas police knew about the confession obviously that was made they believed that kifi d was somebody they could charge for this crime that he wasn't necessarily the trigger man but he had this role as the shot caller in the car
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
and so they spent all of these years trailing him you know figuratively what did he say where did he say it where are the breadcrumbs can we place him here can we get confirmations there i was like why don't you just charge him but they won't confirm they want something stronger than just one guy saying one thing exactly they were concerned that if they arrested him then and proceeded with just his confession if the confession for whatever reason got thrown out of court they'd have no case
20/20
The Crime Scene: Tupac Murder Suspect Speaks Out
So their strategy was, let's wait, let's watch, let's build the case using the map that he was creating for detectives. And that's what they did. And it went year after year after year until finally... Las Vegas police, the Homicide Bureau, and prosecutors came to an agreement. Aha, we have enough. We have a solid case. Even if we lose the confession, we think we can get a conviction.