Nevada judge denies release of ex-gang leader ahead of trial in 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An ailing former Los Angeles-area gang leader has been denied release from a Las Vegas jail ahead of his trial in the 1996 killing of music legend Tupac Shakur, despite a bid by a hip-hop music figure to underwrite his $750,000 bond.

A Nevada judge rejected house arrest with electronic monitoring for Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 61, saying she wasn't satisfied with assurances that Davis and his would-be benefactor — Cash “Wack 100” Jones — weren't planning to reap profits from the sale of Davis' life story.

A Nevada law prohibits convicted killers from profiting from their crime.

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny said in her ruling issued Wednesday that a review of Jones' financial records also did little to address her concerns that Jones might be a “'front' or ‘middleman’ for the true bond poster.”

Davis has sought to be released since shortly after his arrest last September made him the only person ever charged with a crime in the killing, which has drawn intense interest and speculation for 27 years.

Prosecutors allege the gunfire in Las Vegas that killed Shakur stemmed from competition between East Coast members of a Bloods gang sect and West Coast groups of a Crips sect, including Davis, for dominance in a musical genre known at the time as “gangsta rap.”

Davis has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 4. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

After a 45-minute hearing Tuesday, Kierny said she was left with more questions than answers after Davis' legal team tried to demonstrate the source of the funds.

Prosecutors have argued that Davis intends to benefit from retelling his story about the killing of Shakur and played a recording of a jailhouse phone call in which Jones describes to Davis a plan to produce “30 to 40 episodes” of a show based on his life story.

“It is an illegal benefit, profiting from this crime,” prosecutor Binu Palal told the judge. Palal didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday on the judge's decision.

Jones, a music record executive who has managed hip-hop artists including Johnathan “Blueface” Porter and Jayceon “The Game” Taylor, offered sworn testimony Tuesday by video from an unspecified place in California.

He said he paid 15% of the bail amount, or $112,500, as “a gift” from his business accounts to secure Davis’ release.

Davis' attorney, Carl Arnold, didn't respond to emails or phone calls left at his office Wednesday seeking comment. A spokesperson for Arnold didn't immediately have comment when reached by email.

The judge said in Wednesday's 2-page order she wasn't convinced the bail money was not being paid “out of profits from Mr. Davis discussing the killing of the victim in this case.”

While Jones testified he was bonding out Davis because Davis was fighting cancer and “had been a pillar of the community," previous interviews “suggested another motive," Kierney wrote.

She said Jones indicated there were “stipulations” on the bond and “that Mr. Davis would be signing a contract regarding the rights to his life story, ostensibly including the shooting of Mr. Shakur." She said that was supported by a recorded phone call at the jail when Jones “insisted that a contract be signed before the bond premium was paid.”

Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada. Associated Press journalists Rio Yamat and Ty ONeil in Las Vegas and Jonathan Landrum in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, arrives in court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

Carl Arnold, attorney for Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, speaks in court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

Cash "Wack 100" Jones, who put up the bail for Duane "Keffe D" Davis, is shown during an interview in a court hearing for Davis at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Davis is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, speaks in court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

FILE - Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles, Aug. 15, 1996. A Nevada judge is being asked to decide Tuesday, June 25, 2024, if a former Los Angeles-area gang leader will be freed from jail to house arrest ahead of his murder trial in the 1996 killing of hip-hop music legend Tupac Shakur. (AP Photo/Frank Wiese, File)

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny presides during at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, right, talks to his attorney, Carl Arnold, in court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP, Pool)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80.

Mull's daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness.”

Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight."

“He was known for excelling at every creative discipline imaginable and also for doing Red Roof Inn commercials,” Maggie Mull said in an Instagram post. “He would find that joke funny. He was never not funny. My dad will be deeply missed by his wife and daughter, by his friends and coworkers, by fellow artists and comedians and musicians, and—the sign of a truly exceptional person—by many, many dogs.”

Known for his blonde hair and well-trimmed mustache, Mull was born in Chicago, raised in Ohio and Connecticut and studied art in Rhode Island and Rome.

His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, penning the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan.

He would combine music and comedy in an act that he brought to hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s.

“In 1976 I was a guitar player and sit-down comic appearing at the Roxy on the Sunset Strip when Norman Lear walked in and heard me," Mull told The Associated Press in 1980. “He cast me as the wife beater on ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.’ Four months later I was spun off on my own show.”

His time on the Strip was memorialized in the 1973 country rock classic “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy" where the Riders of the Purple Sage give him a shoutout along with music luminaries Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge.

“I know Kris and Rita and Marty Mull are hangin' at the Troubadour,” the song says.

On “Fernwood Tonight” (sometimes styled as “Fernwood 2 Night”), he played Barth Gimble, the host of a local talk show in a midwestern town and twin to his “Mary Hartman” character. Fred Willard, a frequent collaborator with very similar comic sensibilities, played his sidekick. It was later revamped as “America 2 Night” and set in Southern California.

He would get to be a real talk show host as a substitute for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show."

Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr's boss and Michael Keaton's foe in 1983's “Mr. Mom.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull appeared in, has become a cult classic.

The 1980s also brought what many thought was his best work, “A History of White People in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a “60 Minutes” style investigative reporter investigating all things milquetoast and mundane. Willard was again a co-star.

He wrote and starred in 1988's “Rented Lips" alongside Robert Downey Jr., whose father, Robert Sr., directed.

His co-star Jennifer Tilly said in an X post Friday that Mull was “such a witty charismatic and kind person.”

In the 1990s he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons on “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, who died in 2020.

Mull would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” a cult-classic character on a cult-classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a guest run on “Veep.”

“What I did on ‘Veep’ I’m very proud of, but I’d like to think it’s probably more collective, at my age it’s more collective,” Mull told the AP after his nomination. “It might go all the way back to ‘Fernwood.’”

Other comedians and actors were often his biggest fans.

“Martin was the greatest,” “Bridesmaids” director Paul Feig said on X. “So funny, so talented, such a nice guy. Was lucky enough to act with him on The Jackie Thomas Show and treasured every moment being with a legend. Fernwood Tonight was so influential in my life.”

Mull is survived by his daughter and musician Wendy Haas, his wife since 1982.

FILE -Wendy Haas, left, and Martin Mull arrive at night one of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016, in Los Angeles. Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday, June 28, 2024. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

FILE -Actors Martin Mull, left, and Roseanne Barr arrive at the TV Land Awards on Sunday June 8, 2008 in Santa Monica, Calif. Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - Martin Mull participates in "The Cool Kids" panel during the Fox Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at The Beverly Hilton hotel on Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” has died, his daughter said Friday, June 28, 2024. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)