Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas attorney who represented Duane "Keffe D" Davis in the case tied to Tupac Shakur's murder, has died, according to sources. No further details about his death have been disclosed.
His name had become familiar well beyond Las Vegas because he was the lawyer for the only man charged in Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder case. Sanft represented Davis at trial earlier this year, before a jury convicted Davis and a judge sentenced him to 40 years to life in prison.
Sanft's path to that courtroom began far from Nevada. He grew up on the island of Tonga, moved to San Diego as a child, earned his law degree from Brigham Young University and had been a member of the Nevada state bar since 2002. By the time he took on Davis's defense, he was already a seasoned Las Vegas attorney with a reputation for handling one of the city's most closely watched murder cases.
What remains unanswered is the reason for his death. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police referred questions to the Clark County Coroner's Office, and no additional details have been made public. That leaves the most basic question about Sanft's death unresolved even as his work in the Davis case keeps his name attached to one of the highest-profile criminal proceedings in recent memory.
For now, Sanft's death closes the career arc of a lawyer who was drawn into a case that has shadowed Las Vegas for decades. The next development, if it comes, will be whether the coroner provides the missing details that have not yet been disclosed.
