Michael Sanft, The Attorney Who Defended Keefe D In The Tupac Trial, Reportedly Passes Away
Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas defense attorney who represented Duane “Keefe D” Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder trial, has reportedly passed away. Sources told FOX 5 Vegas that Las Vegas authorities reported Sanft deceased on Thursday night, November 5. KSNV News 3 in Las Vegas also reported his death, citing sources.
At this time, key details remain unknown. No cause of death has been released, and none will be reported here until officials provide one. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department referred questions about Sanft’s passing to the Clark County Coroner’s Office, which had not provided details as of press time. This story is based on sourcing from Las Vegas outlets and has not yet been confirmed with a formal statement from the coroner.
Sanft was a veteran of the Las Vegas courtroom, with 25 years in criminal defense. He earned his law degree from Brigham Young University and had been a member of the Nevada state bar since 2002. At SOS Injury Lawyers, he served as the firm’s lead trial attorney. Earlier this year, he took on the most closely watched case of his career, agreeing to represent Davis pro bono in a prosecution nearly three decades in the making.
Davis, the only person ever charged in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, stood trial this summer in Clark County District Court. A jury convicted him of first-degree murder on August 31, and Judge Carli Kierny sentenced him to 40 years to life in prison on October 13. Throughout the trial, Sanft argued that his client was a self-promoter who had invented and embellished stories about the 1996 killing to sell books and build a name for himself, and that those accounts could not substitute for evidence. He pointed to the absence of physical evidence tying Davis to the crime scene, noting that no murder weapon was ever recovered. After the verdict, Sanft publicly criticized the police investigation as narrow, and he told FOX 5 that he would not have done anything differently in the case.
Sanft and Davis had planned to appeal the conviction, an effort Sanft was expected to help lead. His reported death leaves the handling of that appeal unclear, and no replacement attorney had been identified in reporting as of press time. ITSBIZKIT will update this story as officials confirm additional details. Our condolences go out to Michael Sanft’s family, friends, and colleagues.
Source: FOX 5 Vegas; KSNV News 3 (Las Vegas).
