Michael Sanft, the defense lawyer who represented Duane "Keefe D" Davis during the Tupac Shakur murder trial this year, has reportedly died, according to FOX5 Vegas. Per sources, authorities in Las Vegas reported him deceased on Thursday night, November 5. A cause of death and other details were not publicly available at press time.
Sanft was SOS Injury Lawyers' lead trial attorney and had tried over 150 cases to jury verdict. He represented Davis pro bono during the Las Vegas trial, which ended in Davis's conviction and a 40-years-to-life prison sentence. He had planned to appeal the conviction, and it is currently unclear how his death will affect those proceedings.
Davis was the only person charged in the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur. 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. Judge Carli Kierny later sentenced Davis to 40 years to life.
Sanft grew up on the island of Tonga and moved to San Diego as a child. He received his law degree from Brigham Young University and joined the Nevada state bar in 2002, where he remained until his death. In an interview with FOX5 after the verdict, Sanft said he would not have done anything differently. "We had the best team possible in this case, from the motion practice work on this appeal to our investigator to our firm here at SOS Injury," he said. "We all did our part. I don't see what I could've done differently."
Sanft's death leaves an immediate question about who will handle the appeal. Davis still has the right to pursue post-conviction review, but no replacement attorney had been identified in the available reporting, and no briefing schedule was available.
