Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - P. Diddy and Tupac Shakur's Murder: 'There's Some Truth To It,' Detective Says

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Years before federal agents raided Sean “Diddy” Combs’ homes in a sex trafficking probe, the mogul had other brushes with the law. In 1999, he was charged and later acquitted in a shooting at a New York nightclub and his name has come up many times in the Tupac Shakur murder investigation. Law&Crime’s Angenette Levy talks with former federal prosecutor Tim Jansen and Derrick Parker, a retired NYPD detective who arrested Combs in 1999, about the latest investigation and a possible connection to Tupac Shakur’s murder in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host: Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Tim Jansen  https://www.instagram.com/courtroomchef/Derrick Parker  https://www.instagram.com/therealhiphopcop/CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify. I'm vivacious, eccentric, and I'm a Scorpio. Sean Diddy Combs under investigation for sex trafficking after bombshell civil suits accuse him of sexual assault. But it's not the only time Sean Combs' name has come up when it comes to major crimes, even murder. We take a look at the cases that have almost landed Diddy in hot water up until now. Thanks for joining me for Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Sean Combs is a bit of a chameleon. He's always changing. He's been Puffy the record producer and

founder of Bad Boy Records. Then he morphed into an entrepreneur with his own Sean John clothing line, a line of fragrances with Estee Lauder, and he's even partnered in ventures involving bottled water and vodka. But behind all of that glitz and glamour, there have always been allegations about Combs having a dark side. Back in 1999, Combs was arrested for a shooting at a nightclub in Manhattan. His then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez was with him and put in cuffs for hours. Combs and his bodyguard were charged but acquitted at trial. Only rapper Jamal Shine Barrow was convicted and served time for the shooting. Victim Natanya Rubin was shot in the nose and told News Nation that it was not Shine but but Sean Combs, who shot her that night.

I said it immediately. I literally watched them pull out the guns. I've had a clear point of view. I mean, for God's sake, I got shot in my nose. I was facing them directly. I watched everything occur and have described it, you know, vehemently to all parties involved. Again, that was back in 1999. But Combs' name also came up many, many times in an incident three years earlier, in 1996 in Las Vegas, thousands of miles from New York, when Tupac Shakur was murdered. Combs wasn't in Vegas that night, but a man who claimed he knew Combs, who then went by Puffy, was. His name was Dwayne Kifidi Davis. Kifidi is now charged with ordering Tupac Shakur's murder.

Kifidi told the cops years ago that Combs offered $1 million to anyone willing to kill Tupac Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight. It's important to note that Sean Combs has never, ever been charged in connection to Tupac Shakur's death, but his name came up many times in the grand jury testimony that led to Keefie D being charged. A witness testified that Keefie D and his nephew, Orlando Anderson, were in charge of the relationship between their gang, the Southside Compton Crips, and Bad Boy Records. Death Row Records was connected to the Bloods. The night that Tupac Shakur was killed,

a witness testified that Eric Zip Martin, an associate of Sean Combs, gave Keefie D the gun the night that Tupac was shot. Joining me to discuss Sean Combs' prior history and brushes with the law are two people who know a lot about it. The first is Tim Jansen. He's a former federal prosecutor and also Derek Parker. He's a retired New York Police Department detective,

also the original hip hop cop and author of the book Notorious C.O.P. So thanks to both of you for coming on. Derek, I'll start with you on this. Is this whole sex trafficking thing, is this the chickens coming home to roost as far as Sean Combs is concerned? Well, yes, there's a lot of allegations that have come out recently with these civil lawsuits about his involvement with some possible sex trafficking. So that's been very, very in the news. It's been newsworthy lately. So yes, it is something that's being looked into. Derek, take me back to that night in 1999 when we had the shooting at the nightclub in Manhattan.

You were part of the group of police officers who took Sean Combs into custody. Tell me what happened. When I got to the Midtown North Precinct, it was a lot of people out, a lot of cops. As soon as I walked in, all the attorneys applauded me. They said, finally, somebody with brains is here. So I had talked to the attorneys and told them, listen, I just got here. The chief told me I was in charge, but he was a higher rank than I was. And I said, I'm going to try to

situate everybody because I knew they had attorneys. So the right to counsel was already there. They couldn't be questioned by us or anyone. So I took Puffy, my partner took J-Lo, and I put them in cars. And we took them back to the Midtown South Precinct because that was the precinct of occurrence where Club new york was now while i was there i talked to the detectives that were going to have the case and the biggest concern was was sean combs the shooter did he have any involvement in this uh the shooting of a woman in the club and possibly several other people that might have got injured. Shine was definitely there.

He was Jamal Barrow, that's his name. He was caught with the gun coming out of the club by the uniformed officers. He was arrested on the spot, so he was brought to the precinct as well. While we were there at the Midtown South Precinct, we were told by the DA's office, because we had to notify them, that Matt McDonough, who was the DA in charge, he didn't want anybody spoken to or questioned until he got there. And then he would deal with the attorneys. And then we took it from there. To this day, the victim in that case says that Sean Combs is the one who shot her, that it was not Shine who shot her.

What is your response to that? Well, I can only tell you what I remember. I remember that night. There was a lot of things going on. There was a lot of police brass around, a lot of detectives. And basically, we had several people that had to be interviewed or spoken to. She was one of them. I do remember something about glass fragments hitting her. Nothing about a bullet hitting her in the face. I mean, I didn pretty much conducting the interviews because that was their precinct.

So they were taking over mostly of that. But she had said something about him shooting, but I don't remember totally about Puff had a gun. That's what I don't remember. Tim, what is your feeling on the sex trafficking allegations? Because we've had these civil suits that started being filed last year,

you know, somewhere around November or so. The first one was by Cassie, and that kind of opened up the floodgates. Others followed, including one by Little Rod, a man claiming he had been sexually assaulted by Sean Combs and even another actor, a really famous actor, Cuba Gooding Jr. Is this all, do you think this investigation stems solely from these allegations? Or do you think there's just been this cloud of suspicion around Sean Combs for so long? And then we finally got some court documents that outlined something concrete. And the feds were like, you know what, it's time we got to move on this guy. Because there's always been some smoke around Puffy,

not to, you know, no pun intended, but there's always been something going on with this guy, despite the glitz and the glamour and the Sean John and the, you know, the white party on Long Island and all of that. Well, you know, the civil suits give you like a guide map before you have these crimes that have occurred and somehow witnesses don't come forward or testimony is lost

and there's never enough evidence to prove it. Now you have these civil suits and these civil suits would have been settled privately before the lawsuits would have been filed. There may not have been enough information for the feds to get their attention and to go after them. But now you have witnesses and you have affidavits. You have people filing civil suits, meaning they're signing affidavits. This is what happened to me. It's probably consistent with what they thought for years. And now they have actual witnesses they can interview.

And I think they took that information in those lawsuits and they used that to get the probable cause for the search warrants. Because now remember, now these witnesses are saying what happened to them. They need to get in there and see if the layout of the house is exactly what they say. They want to go in there and get any digital video. They want to get confirmation that on these dates, the rooms look like this. They're getting evidence. And it seems like at least the Southern District of New York, a judge, a federal judge has authorized probable cause that crimes have been committed

and that the crime evidence is going to be found in those locations. Judges don't give search warrants. And these are high profile cases. And they went in heavy. OK, they were expecting guns and they didn't know what they expect. But they went in heavy with manpower to get the evidence in search. And it appeared from what TMZ was reporting, they had some exclusive photographs and things like that, that hard drives, electronic devices were seized. Of course, that would contain evidence and you know there was some allegations by little rod that there were video cameras all over the place possibly recording people uh in in these sex acts like that this was like an epstein 2.0 situation

obviously sean combs is saying he didn't do anything wrong. But that's the allegation, Tim. Well, the important thing is, not only do they have, I mean, it'd be great if they could find the videos, which I doubt. But if they can find the recording devices in each room, that would be consistent and that would corroborate the information from their witnesses. If they can show that there was cameras in each room that would help their case in and bringing charges against and it would give the credibility of the witnesses who filed these civil suits uh there's an allegation that he gets these wealthy people in the rooms they engage in either drugs or sex pedophilic acts and then they have them recorded and then they blackmail that's what the allegation that's what the rumor is.

I don't know if it's true, but if they can find recording devices in each room, that would go a long way to giving some corroboration to these witnesses. Do you ultimately see with all of this hoopla, you know, surrounding the execution of these warrants, Tim, do you see a charge coming? Obviously they went in there looking for evidence to corroborate the allegations. You have to have

evidence. You can't just have somebody's word. So do we just wait and see what comes of the search warrant? Or do you see them eventually filing some type of charge? And what would the timeline be for that? Well, they're not going to go against Sean Combs, who's got plenty of money to have really good lawyers. They're not going to rush to a charge. The feds don't have to rush to a charge. They have the ability to pick and choose who they charge, what they charge. Homeland Security does most of the sex trafficking. So if they can prove that some elements they have to prove that a minor was being shipped there or transported there for the sole purposes of engaging in sexual activity and that Sean Combs in some way furthered that act to occur.

Or did he benefit in some way? Did he blackmail people for it to occur? Did he gain financial benefit from it? I mean, there's a whole list of charges that can be filed. They arrested a small, I guess they call him his mule, his drug mule, 25-year-old. They arrested him on the scene with drugs. So you can rest assured that they are meeting with him, trying to get him to flip and cooperate. The world can be an incredibly scary place. There are predators everywhere and they can look like the person next door. They can even be rich and famous and appear harmless. You have to do whatever you can do to keep yourself and your family safe. Truthfinder.com can help you do that. Truthfinder is a website that allows you to search public records for any

red flags that will help you get information about the people you encounter in your life each day. Log on to Truthfinder and search a name. You'll get a person's address, past and current, any possible criminal records results, and even traffic tickets. Maybe you want to search a neighbor, a possible new friend, or someone who's going to look after your kids. Or maybe it's just someone you met out at the gym or an art class or a yoga class. Truthfinder will even show you sex offender statuses for people living in your neighborhood. The cases I cover make it clear you cannot take too many steps to keep yourself and your kids safe. If you'd like to check out Truthfinder, and I think you should, you can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix

and start accessing information about almost anyone. I want to turn now to another case that has been in the headlines now for almost 30 years, the murder of Tupac Shakur. And last year, after, you know, 27 years, there was an arrest in Tupac Shakur's murder. Dwayne Kiffey D. Davis, this is a case I've covered really extensively. Dwayne Kiffey D. Davis was arrested and charged in Las Vegas for ordering the murder of Tupac Shakur and ordering his nephew, Orlando Anderson, to shoot and kill Tupac Shakur. And, you know, Suge Knight was driving the car, so, you know, possibly killing both of them. And there's always been this talk, Eric, by Kifidi and others, that Sean Combs wanted Tupac and Suge dead.

It was part of the East Coast-West Coast rivalry, and that Sean Combs possibly was offering as much as a million dollars for somebody to take them out. You kind of looked into this. So tell us what your feelings are on Keefie D's claims. Well, I was out in Las Vegas when this, after the homicide occurred. I was working with the Las Vegas PD on that investigation. From what I remember, what I know is that I know that there was an East Coast, West Coast rift because I had to explain to the hierarchy here in New York about the bad boy versus Death Row, about how this whole thing started. What happens is that Orlando Anderson went out and he was in the car with three other people.

All those three people are dead that were in the car with him. So none of them were around. He was the only guy that was left. And he wasn't supposedly the actual shooter. He was in the car. So he gave up information, incriminating himself on Vlad TV and other social media outposts,

where he was saying that he was there, he knew about the car, he knew about the shooting. Now, there was a problem with Puff, or Diddy, Sean Combs, as we say, and Death Row Records with Suge Knight. There was a total beef with them because of the shooting that happened in Atlanta with Jake Robles when he got killed, when one of Puffy's guys killed one of Shrew's guys. So that beef stemmed from back then. But there was always this implication that Puffy paid or had money put up with another individual who's dead, named Zip, to provide protection money. Now, the thing with Orlando and Anderson happened spontaneously because that happened at the MGM.

And when they got in the car, Orlando went after them because they had beat them up in the MGM casino in Las Vegas. So that's where that stemmed from. Now, everybody is saying there's a lot of different things about people saying, well, there was money paid for this, money paid for that. There was an allegation that money was put up for protection, protection money. And the protection money might have included maybe the possible assassination of Suge or Tupac. So that's still up in the air.

Nobody could really corroborate that. It's been said, but it's still out there in the case. The thing that's interesting about this is that Keefy D claims that Zip Martin, who was friendly with Sean Combs, gave him the gun to kill Tupac and Suge. So obviously it is still up in the air, but Sean Combs' name came up quite a bit in the grand jury testimony, Derek. You know, there was Reggie Wright, who was the head of security for Death Row Records, talked about Sean Combs a lot and was outlining this East-West rivalry,

you know, this East Coast, West Coast thing that was going on. So it's still up in the air. But do you think it was maybe like one of those things where it was all talk? Or do you think that there might be something there? No, there's some truth to it. You know, listen, I've talked to... So listen, I was one of or do you think that there might be something there no there's there's some truth to it you know listen i i've talked to several listen i was one of the first detectives out there on on that shooting on his homicide and then the case went off you know the las vegas the problem you had in this case was that the las vegas pd and the uh los angeles pd

and the englewood pd were at odds They weren't those corruption problems out in Los Angeles that stemmed with the Inglewood PD with Reggie Wright and his family. So there wasn't a lot of I would say cooperation between the departments. I mean, I hear it is for me coming out from New York dealing with two departments was very difficult because there was a lot of things that were going on back then. But some of the things that were said were probably true. They just can't be corroborated right now. I know Zip very well. I spoke with him. I had him arrested when he came in to New York on another case.

I had warrants on him. And I had contacted LAPD to come out to talk to him when I had to. And those guys, it was Fred Miller and I think the gentleman who wrote the book Labyrinth, I kind of think his name, Russell Poole. They wouldn't come out. And I had Zip for warrants and I had processed him through the system here in New York, but he would never talk to me. He said he couldn't snitch. He couldn't tell me what was really going on with that. So, and he kept that secret until his death. he died of cancer so zip Martin you knew him he just wouldn't talk that's correct so you're saying there's something to this to the whole

Sean Combs relationship there's a lot there's a lot to it it's just had it has to be proven like you know it has to be proven zip was like the go-between for everything. And he's not here anymore. So you can't really corroborate what Kifidi is saying, even though it might have some credibility. But everybody in that car, people that were involved, were dead. I think after the shooting of Tupac and the shooting of Biggie, there were several wars that took place in Los Angeles where you had a lot of crips and bloods that

were getting shot and killed. I don't know if you remember that. But after these deaths, there was a lot of homicides out there that happened as a result of these two gentlemen's deaths. So, Tim, what do you make of that? Derek is saying it has to be proven, but there is something to it. And we've only got Kifidi's word right now about this, about this possible Sean Combs tie to the deaths of the death of Tupac Shakur. So do you think that's something because Sean Combs name came up so often in the grand jury

testimony? Do you think that is something that they are interested in, the prosecutors in Las Vegas? Because why else are we talking about Sean Combs in the grand jury testimony? Well, of course, they got a witness in the grand jury. He doesn't have a lawyer in the grand jury, so he's got to answer questions. They're probably trying to get information from him so they can follow leads called derivative use of it. They're not going to charge Sean Puffy Combs with murder based on Keithy D alone. They've got to have some evidence. And there probably is, right, that there is information and rumor and some pretty good sources that this was a hit.

But they can't go forward just by what they think happened. Keithy D is not going to be enough to convict Sean Puffy Combs. They need something more than that. As Derek said, most of the people that were involved in that shooting or in that car are all dead now. They're not available to be witnesses. So while they may be looking at it, maybe they want to build a RICO case because it would maybe tag along with what the allegations are about the violence, sexual violence of black males and show a history of, uh, violent that would make these people afraid, right? Make them afraid of Puffy Daddy.

His name changes so often. But if you have a history... Yeah, I keep it. Back in the Tupac era, it was Puffy and then it was Puff Daddy, I think. And then now we're Diddy. And then, I don't know. Sean John, that's the close, right?

So I try to keep it all straight. But if he has a history, Anjanette, of violence, of going against people, then it makes sense that he would be able to get away with this kind of, if these rumors or allegations are true, it would make sense he would be able to get away from it, or get away with it for so long because people would be afraid. And if people know that you can get hurt or, you know, snitches get stitches or worse, then people aren't going to come forward. And that's why the most important

thing is to get evidence. And I think that's why the feds are taking so long. Normally, when you execute a search warrant like this on sex trafficking by the feds, they've already got enough to charge somebody they're just getting everything to just like the icing on top but they're making sure because who the defendant might be that they have everything they can possibly get and they might charge him with rico build in everything they can build into that indictment looks very bad for the defendant or the alternative they may never charge him. I don't have any inside addition.

But I think with the fact that they've executed these warrants after these civil suits, and apparently people are talking, I would assume that there's possibly going to be a federal indictment announced. So is the investigation into Tupac's murder, does that fold into this? Do you guys see that happening? Tim, you first. I think they could use it as not actual charges, but they can use it as acts, predicate acts in a RICO conspiracy. If they can show that this, to get a RICO, they want to show this is a criminal organization, ongoing, has been ongoing for years. And this type of violence and crimes

started in 96 and continued all the way till 2024, and includes the allegations by the people in these civil suits. Derek, what are your thoughts on that? I have to agree with him. They're going to look for the predicate acts. And he could correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't use a co-conspirator's testimony against another individual. You need an independent witness to corroborate it. Am I right?

Well, you can use a co-conspirator's statement. It's not hearsay because if it's in furtherance of the conspiracy, that's why the feds always charge conspiracy because statements made by someone else are not hearsay and they can be used. But it's hard to get a conviction just based on co-conspirator hearsay statements. But it has been done. And just recently, I testified in the Jam Master J trial with the Eastern District a month ago. They called me in as a witness. And in that case, I wrote in my book who the two perpetrators were, and they were convicted. But defense brought in pretty much everybody in that case, over 30 witnesses to testify, and they got a conviction. Well, they always bring more than less. Because they know how to win in federal court. The rules of evidence in federal court are different than state courts. In state courts, they exclude evidence, right? Federal courts, they include it. It's a rules of inclusion. So that's why conspiracy is so damaging to

defendants in federal court. Derek Parker and Tim Jansen, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate it. We hope you come back. Thank you very much. Sean Combs' lawyer issued the following statement about the raid on his properties. Quote, there was a gross overuse of military level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs' residences. There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated. Mr. Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities. Despite media speculation, neither Mr. Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested nor has their ability to travel been

restricted in any way. This unprecedented ambush paired with an advanced coordinated media presence leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits. There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name. My questions about Sean Combs' possible involvement in Tupac Shakur's murder were not addressed. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with us. We'll see you back here next time.

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