Law&Crime Sidebar - Tupac Murder: HEATED Ex-Gang Member Flips in Courtroom Clash

Episode Date: August 19, 2026

Tupac Shakur’s murder trial in Las Vegas takes an explosive turn as former gang member Mob James McDonald takes the stand, addressing defendant Duane "Keffe D" Davis directly after a fiery exchange with his defense attorney. Meanwhile, Death Row Records head of security Reggie Wright Jr. faces intense cross-examination over security breakdowns and conspiracy theories surrounding the night of the infamous 1996 drive-by shooting. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down the most dramatic courtroom moments and key witness testimony unfolding in Nevada.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Go to https://quince.com/lawcrime to get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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/lawandcrimeTwitter: 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.

You better treat me as a house to witness. This Tupac Shakur murder trial is bringing in some fireworks, but not from the prosecution, from a former alleged gang member who made it clear he didn't want to be there. I don't want to send him to prison. Sure. Even though we don't like each other. Even seemingly addressing the defendant, D. Davis, directly. Talk to your lawyer, man. This dude is tripping. It appears he doesn't want to send anybody to prison. We're going to break down the biggest moments from that explosive testimony and the testimony from someone that Keefe D's camp has seemingly suggested may be the one responsible for what happened to Tupac.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Okay, so we're back with more highlights out of Las Vegas, Nevada. This is as we continue our coverage of the trial against D. Davis, the only person ever charged with the murder of Tupac Choucour, who was. gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996. Now, we've already broken down some of the major moments that have happened so far in this trial, but yesterday, yesterday, after we taped our episode, something happened. Something happened that you just need to see for yourself, okay? You need to hear, you need to see to believe.

Arguably, the most explosive testimony yet came in when this man, mob James McDonald, the former Mobb Pyru gang member, took the stand. And he made it clear right off the back. that he didn't want to be there, telling the court to treat him as a hostile witness. And at one point, he even seemingly addressed Kee-D directly. Yeah, and possibly, by the way, Key-D. Had some words for him at the end, too. We'll get to that.

Now, there's also testimony from Reggie Wright Jr. We've been waiting for this. This is the head or the former head of security for death row records testified about what seemed to be security lapses, security failures that may have left Tupac, especially vulnerable that night, though he denied any involvement in Tupac's killing. Lots to get into there. By the way, I've interviewed Reggie Wright Jr. on my News Nation show, Jesse Weber Live. He also denied having anything to do with Tupac there.

But here's the thing. There has been this theory floating around for a while. Now, it's seemingly part of the defense's case that Reggie Wright Jr. was somehow involved, somehow helped orchestrate Tupac's killing. And the prosecution, knowing this, they need to be. to shut down that theory immediately. So what do they do? They call in mob James McDonald. Now, before we even get to that, I just want to let you know, this is a big case that we've been following here on Sidebar. We follow a lot of big trials, a lot of big cases. We're sometimes

limited in how much we can show you of all the information out there. That is why, if you don't know about it, we have the case file section on the Long Crime Plus app set up. So we're opening up the evidence fault. So you can inspect like raw body cam footage, the 911 calls, the crime scene photos, the full trial tapes, the documents, all that for yourself firsthand. And also, by the way, you get ad-free streaming of all your favorite long crime and court TV shows. So you can see the full picture for an entire month free. You head over to longcrimeplus.com.

Enter promo code sidebar. Start exploring today. All that information is up there. Okay. As I said, McDonald was this member of Mob Pirou. And apparently worked for security for Shug Night. Now he'd known him for a long time. And when the prosecutor asked him directly if Wright Jr. was involved, he didn't hesitate.

Did it appear to you in any way that Reggie Wright Jr. was coordinating the murder of Tupac Choucourt? Impossible. And I say this because you're aware that there have been some conspiracy theories that Reggie Wright Jr. is responsible for the murder of Tupac. And it's so not true. his father was implicated and his father had something

to do with it Reggie Wright used to be a police officer and here again I've been knowing Reggie Wright over 50 years his daddy as a police officer

patrolling in my neighborhood he didn't took me to jail many times when I messed up if Reggie killed Tupac then Deppro is over with Tupac was the money source

Tupac was was that guy at death row. So, it's, Reggie would have had a problem if he would have did that. And Shug,

I truly believe Shoeh would have opened his mouth if Reggie betrayed him like that. And then, McDonald went on to describe Wright's role at the club to essentially keep an eye on Tupac. Now, that would contradict the theory

that he would have been involved or orchestrating a hit. But then, things got intense. Take a listen. So you was going to get some repercussions from that and everything else that was going on. So living in this life, you've got to be ready. If you're not, you might as well just lay down.

Now, you worked there for the beating of Orlando Anderson at the MGM. Were you? Oh, I was. Like we talked earlier, you were at 6662. Yeah. But are you aware of why Orlando was targeted? I'm aware of a lot of things. Things that was going on, people ain't talked about it in 30 years.

Today ain't one of them. I don't mean to be funny, but here's the thing. A lot of things happened that night. A lot of things happened weeks and weeks after that night. Me or anybody else bringing up the dead is wrong. A lot of people got hurt behind this situation in itself. Living the life and how we lived in Compton is one thing. You bring back all of the guys that made it, like me, I'm 61 years old now,

to rehash and relive this situation again, I told every attorney in here that tried to get me to come here. You better treat me as a house to witness. And I think that's where I'm about to go now because you're asking me questions. I can't answer those questions. Okay, well, let me ask you this. I'm not going to speak on Orlando.

Let me ask you something about yourself. That was a rumor that Tupac had knocked you out one time. How to kill him. That would have been your response. that happened. Yeah, I'm being honest with you and everybody else. I said it on my podcast show. I know this is a 180. I get it, but I just got to call out this amazing sponsor. I think you guys are going to love it. I think you need to upgrade your closet, right? Reset, Autumn's here. Got to tell you about quince, okay? Quince is everyday staples like their ultra soft cotton teas or their premium

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All right, so then it came time for cross-examination by the defense, and I will tell you, it got even more intense, so intense, actually, that McDonald even had words for Kee-F-E-D. Was there, can you describe that for us when you went back in terms of what kind of tension we're talking about. Are you sure you want me to answer that? Is it going to be graphic? No, I ain't going to, I can't raise the word in it,

but you asking me a question, I don't, and what I explained to them, I don't want to send them to prison. Sure. Even though we don't like each other, sure. I don't want to send you to prison. So that's why I'm here where I met and the way I am, because I've changed my life. I'm raising my grandkids,

teaching them never to be like they pop-paw. And here I am explaining the people what I used to be, and I'm not proud of that. I'm not proud of that at all. And you're asking me questions that can hurt him. And like I told them, I'm trying to avoid to answer the questions that they might look at me and say something is wrong. Well, let me put this way. Let me help you up with this.

Okay. So these people right here, what they want to know from you is did you see who shot Tupac? I told you know. Correct. So outside of that question, right, the next question I'm asking you is when you went back to Compton, was it like a south side crib, shoots a pyru blood? And then a pirate blood shoots a side crypt. Is that the tension that we're talking about?

Do I answer this? That's a straightforward question. Yes or no answer? Okay. Did you see that? When I was a part of that life, I was a part of that. And I was, no, because you're asking something that's going to hurt this dude. And when I, when, okay, let me stop.

And once again, I want to emphasize. When we got back to Compton, it was. It was a gang war. People were getting hurt. People was being sought. People were looking for certain individuals from his neighborhood. As well, they did mine. But Orlando, him, and certain other people were being assaulted because people wanted to kill them.

Sure. They wanted to kill? No, I don't only want to open this in here. No, they weren't the only one. his neighborhood in particular. But they were the main subjects of a gang war. It was in the middle, such

as me. So you're telling us that people back home somehow had some type of information that said that that guy, as a bunch of other people, were involved in what? In a murder, two-five. Okay, but my question to you,

my question is... Can you focus on me for seconds? Stop. Can you focus on me for a second? Yeah, I will. And I apologize. I just want to make sure that we're clear, okay? I couldn't speak it. In terms of that information, none of those people were there, right? What people you'd be speaking on? The people that was already in the neighborhood or the people that left Las Vegas that same night, Tupac was shot to go home,

bear their arms, and go to somebody else's neighborhood to look with somebody. They had to pay it back. So once again, my question to you is that the information that I'm asking about is, the people that back home, you're saying were eyewitnesses to this? How could people back home be outwintered to something that happened in Vegas? No, that's not what I'm saying. The people that were here in Las Vegas, sir, the people that were here in Las Vegas, you're telling me where eyewitnesses to what happened and went back home.

Is that what you're telling me? I'm telling you the people that was at 6-6-6-2. Just answer my question, sir, yes or no? I can't answer that without a what you're trying to tell me to say something that you're not going to understand if you let me explain to you. No, answer my question. I'm not answering nothing. I don't know what you're talking about.

Okay. Okay, Mr. McDonnell, focus for a second. I am focused. Be able to focus. Focus on this. My question to you is this. You didn't know what happened that night because you weren't there. I was at 6-6-2.

Right. Do you know who was that was there? I know everybody that was there. Okay. Like who? Talk to your lawyer, man. This dude is tripping. I'm not going to explain that.

I can't answer that. And then he vehemently denied ever seeing the person who shot Tupac, reiterating that he wasn't there. And once again, I just want to, look, we're just trying to figure out who shot Tupac. You're telling us that you weren't getting to see it. That's all I want to know. At the end of the day, that's it, right? Was I in the entourage when Tupac got shot? No.

Okay. Nothing else, right? I was at 6'2. I mean, that ain't that any hard. I mean, that's easy map. No further question, John. Anything further, see? All right, we've got one more phase, and then we'll let you out of here.

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, any questions for this witness? Then a juror had a question. Yeah, jurors are allowed to ask questions under Nevada law. It's actually talking to Mark Ergos about this the other night. It says defense attorneys don't usually like this because they don't feel that that should be the role, the job of a juror to be asking questions like. this. That's not their role to be in that position, to direct where this narrative, this

questioning should go. It can get confusing. There's a role for a defense attorney. There's a role for a prosecutor. Now, prosecutors might like it because it kind of gives them an idea of what the jury may be thinking. But the point is, jurors get to ask questions. And you'll see what this question was here. And after all the tension, all the fireworks, there were his parting words to the court as well, Mr. McDonald. All right. I have a question for you, one of our jurors, if you can answer it. Did Reggie Wright, Jr., instruct security to not have firearms the night of the fight? To be honest, I don't know if Reggie Wright told his people or the police officers not to have parents,

and I don't know why. He showed and told him to tell us because we had ours. And that's the honest truth. All right. Any follow-up based on that state? No, Your Honor. Defense. I just want to clarify what the witnesses said.

You're telling us that you had guns that night. Yeah. I just want to know. But you had guns that night. Yes, we did. All right, thank you. All right. I know you didn't want to be here, but thank you for all to back.

Okay, can I say so? I want to apologize to everybody, but I find this kind of funny. And truthfully, what you're going through, brother, is what you're going through. I didn't want to be a part of that, and I'm not a part of that. So I appreciate it. And I apologize to all you guys. Okay. Thank you, Mr. McFounder.

you were free to go. So that was McDonald. Then the prosecution called somebody we've been talking a lot about so far. Reggie Wright Jr., right, the former head of security for death row records. He is an important witness because his testimony establishes the protocols, the escalating tensions, but most importantly, seemingly what could be argued to be a security failure that left Tupac vulnerable that night. Now, Kee-D. in the past has seemingly put the focus on Wright Jr., this theory out there that he somehow was involved or helped orchestrate Tupac's killing. And part of that theory would be that Wright deliberately left Tupac vulnerable. But Wright's testimony seemingly tells a different story because he seems to claim that security

was actually increased before the shooting because after the song, hit him up was dropped, tensions were high, and everybody believed that Tupac's life was at risk. As the head of rightway security, which was contracted by death row records, were you responsible for Tupac's Accur security? Yes, sir. How did you handle Tupac's your core security? Well, I had two guys that were primarily always assigned to him. One guy was a guy by the name of Kevin Ackey, who was with him.

a lot at the beginning. Later on, towards the end, a gentleman by the name of Frank Alexander was the one that worked with him as well. And then I'll always have additional guys, like Al Giddings, one of them fill in for him when those guys

wasn't available. Generally always had one security guard with him. After this particular cell home came out about May or June, we opted to two security officers. Now, you mentioned a particular song came out that changed how you handled Tupac Shakur's security. What song are you talking about?

It was a song called Hit a Mark. And is it fair to say that in that song, Tupac is aggressively expressing his dislike for the members of Bad Boy Entertainment as well as other artists? That's fair to say. And as a result of that, you decided to change the security for Tupac or increase it. Well, I was a part of the discussion and ultimately had to prove it, but I'm sure Mr. Knight, possibly Mr. Chakor, and maybe the security officer was primarily with him. We all agreed that he probably needed another guy with him. Yeah, it seems right himself wasn't with Tupac that night.

He testified that he went to the club instead of the Tyson fight. So when he heard news of the shooting, he says he was blindsided. Well, we all know that on September 7th, 1996, Tupac Shakur was shot, and Mr. Knight's was at least grazed in the head by a bullet. Did you find out about that? Yes, sir. How did you find out about that? Two gentlemen. Bunchering, the true name was Alty McDonnell, and a gentleman by the name of neckbone.

His true name was Roger Wilts. This is my daughter's neck bone. They came inside the club. It came straight to me. It was like Reggie, Reggie Shigin Park just got shot down the street. I thought they were messing with me because they're like, where Reggie at, you know? Because I wasn't there with him. But then Mr. Galise was standing near me.

I guess he talked to some of the officers that was working out front. And he kind of verified to me that something happened. And then by that time, I see about four or five other units that were working at the club. They started taking out heading that way. Now, we have this infamous MGM security footage that we've played before, right? It appears to show Tupac, Shug, others allegedly attacking Orlando Anderson. Remember, that would be the motive for why all this went down, that Anderson, Keevati's nephew, was upset about this and retaliated against Tupac.

Keefe D. has said that his nephew was humiliated. So, again, that's what allegedly sparked the shooting. But when the fight was brought up at Shug's probation hearing, Anderson apparently testified that Shug was trying to stop the fight. And according to Wright, Anderson was paid a stack of cash to allegedly lie under oath. Is it fair to say that Mr. Knight was on probation at the time of the beating at the NGRA? He was. Can you tell us the people who are involved in this?

That gentleman right there in the white is Buntary, Alton McDonnell. It appears to be somebody in a gold shirt, who was that? That appeared to be Mr. Shakur. Well, that's Mr. Knight, and then that's Mr. Williams. So you see Mr. Williams, Mr. Knight, Mr. Shakur, those are the people that are evident to you. you in this portion of the video. Is that right?

And then after you guys got back from Las Vegas, back to the Southern California area, did Mr. Knight have a legal problem as a result of his alleged participation in that meeting? That's correct, sir. Can you explain that to us? They've already met. Initially, they barred him as they said,

for 30 tests that he did with his probation officer. But while he was still in custody, they then added the charge of he violated his probation for assaulting Mr. Anderson. He's on probation. He's on video, at least what appears to be participating in the beating of Mr. Anderson. And so he is charged with violating his probation. That's correct, sir. And do you participate in... any of the preparation for Mr. Knight's hearing on his probation violation?

With his attorney, Mr. Kenner, I attended several meetings, yes. And then are you aware of a meeting with Mr. Anderson? That's correct. Can you tell us about that? So we met him at his attorney office, Mr. Edie Fall, was in Seville Beach, I believe, where his office was. and we met with him. The attorneys had an agreement where I guess they were or make a settlement or something for

and Ms. Anderson to come and testify on Mr. Knight's behalf where I believe the settlement was about $60,000 because some of the different people had assaulted him and some would say for him coming up and testifying on the behalf of Mr. Mr. Knight. Okay, so just to be clear, prior to Mr. Knight's revocation hearing, there was a meeting with Orlando Anderson, the person who was beaten in that video. Is that right? That's right.

And then there was an agreement that $60,000 would change hands between Shugnight or Death Row or some aspect of that side to Mr. Anderson. Is that correct? That's correct, but that was made between the attorneys, Mr. Cannon, who was also present, and Mr. Paul. Okay. I'm not saying that you're the person that did that. I'm just saying you're... I was at the meeting myself in Norris Anderson,

who was the general manager of the company at the time. Okay. And then at that probation hearing, is it fair to say that Mr. Anderson said that Mr. Knight was just trying to stop the fight and not participate in the fight? at all. That was his testimony, yes. And that was after he received the $60,000. That's what I don't know. That's after the agreement for the $60,000. It was an agreement in place, so.

Okay. And then, is it fair to say that the judge disregarded Mr. Anderson's testimony and revoked Mr. Knight's parole? Well, did the judge believe Mr. Anderson's testimony? Well, Mr. Knight was subsequently violated, for his probation, and received nine years. years of sentence. Now look, even though there's been arguments that the media may have been overstimulating or over-hyping this East Coast, West Coast rivalry, it does seem that tensions between rival music labels and opposing gangs were at an all-time high back in the 90s. And security and protection seemingly became top priorities. But in a twist of fate, one of the bodyguards called out from work, the...

the night that Tupac was shot and killed. Take a look. And you had mentioned earlier that after the song hit him up and come out, and that was probably what three, four months before this, you had assigned two security officers to Mr. Shakur. That's correct. So where's the other one? Well, that was Mr. Hackey, Kevin Hackey.

He was scheduled to also be attending and writing, and that's who I actually thought was going to be with him, coming up with him, because he normally was, with him. You know, him and Mr. Alexander, they kind of worked out who would be with Mr. Shakur. And for some reason, he didn't show up.

He was down telling me, he had a late arrest, and he was stuck at the hospital all day dealing with her arrest. So the fight night arrives. Where are you? Do you go to the fight? I went to the parking lot of the fight.

saw it was kind of hack, act, um, hectic to get inside, but also, uh, got a call from Mr. Giddings, Al Giddings, who was my, uh, supervisor at the club. And they was having some logistic problems, some problems there. And I'd like it to go and, um, get things in order at the, at the club. And when it came time for cross-examination, the defense pointed out that It wasn't just their client who could potentially profit from talking about the case. What about Wright? In your YouTube channel, you have spoken a little bit about me, for instance, right? That's correct.

And you have spoke about me as well. Yeah. So in terms of your podcasts or YouTube channel, and once again, I don't think it was anything to derogator. It's more like he's never tried a criminal case or, you know, I think Hollywood asked attorney, I think you had said something like that, right? Well, you did about 10 interviews in the last two months, so I may have said something like that. It's fair at this pretty good point. At some point, you would actually instruct the key to that, hey, he can actually make money doing the YouTube stuff.

Remember that? It didn't go quite like that, but I did pass his number to a few YouTube channels after he and I had this discussion about doing something on my. channel that I refuse to pay. I'm not giving someone I believe it's Tupac killer money. Sure. You had an interview with a Mr. Mogg. Do you remember that? Detective Mogg, yes sir. And question was asked by Detective Mogg. So what do you get paid for your interviews? And you respond, oh, I get about $2,500,000 a show. You remember that? That's accurate, so I might have said that.

You can make $8,000 to $10,000 off of me. And you just gave me $2,500, $3,000. You remember saying that to a detective law? I'm sure. That's, that's, it's not like I'm sure. I did. So you see the defense trying to mount this argument that rights credibility should be called into question.

Why was any protecting Shug who had a lot to lose if he violated his probation by getting into an altercation? Remember, he was seemingly Shug's head of security. And the defense seemingly even went as far as suggesting that rights absence might not have been accidental. So Shub Knight is in Las Vegas, and you were with them every single day, and in September of 1996, he just happened to get into spray, and next you know, he's going to prison, right? I'm sorry?

Why is, let me ask you this. Why did Shub go to prison? He violated it's probation. Right. So you knew, of course, that he was on probation, right? right? The whole time I was winning. You did?

From 1994, yes. Yeah. And so you knew that the person, the number one person from death of records, the primary principle for you, potentially could go to prison if he got into a fight for instance, right? Correct.

And on this particular night, you weren't around for him when he was in this, quote-unquote, fight, right? I was around with Mr. Knight about 70 to 80% of his life. So I guess a lot of, 20% I wasn't with him.

Okay. Public. Even when I say that, I mean public. There's a lot of times he laid up, sleep with somebody at all. I wasn't waiting. So in the most important time, I should in tonight's life of having your protection, you weren't there for.

Unfortunately not. That's correct. We don't know what the jury's taken away from all this, but we're seeing the arguments from the prosecution and the defense pretty clearly through these witnesses. Now, this trial, of course, is continuing. We are going to cover it as much as we can here on Sidebar. That's what we plan to do, do these daily recaps.

And law and crime is going to be there every step of the way, too. We're streaming this trial live on our trial's YouTube channel. You can check it out there. And as I mentioned earlier, you can dig deeper into this case, the actual documents, the actual evidence, and also on all the big stories they were covering on the Law and Crime Plus app under case files. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast.

and you can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. Thank you so much, everybody. I'll see you next time.