A claim by prosecutors that witnesses may be at risk led a Nevada judge to postpone a bail hearing on Tuesday for a former Los Angeles-area gang leader charged with orchestrating the killing of hip-hop music icon Tupac Shakur in 1996 in Las Vegas.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis’s court-appointed lawyers sought the delay to respond to prosecutors’ allegations, filed last week, that jail telephone recordings and a list of names provided to Davis’s family members show that Davis poses a threat to the public if he is released.

One of Davis’s lawyers, Robert Arroyo, told The Associated Press on Tuesday the defence wanted to put its response in writing. He declined to provide details.

Mr Arroyo said last week he did not see evidence that any witness had been named or threatened.

Tupac Investigation Las Vegas
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis in Clark County District Court, in Las Vegas (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP)

Davis is the only person ever charged with a crime in the drive-by shooting that also wounded rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight, who is now serving 28 years in a California prison for an unrelated fatal shooting in the Los Angeles area in 2015.

Davis has pleaded not guilty and is due for trial in June on a murder charge. He has remained jailed without bail since his arrest on September 29 outside his Henderson home. Las Vegas police had served a search warrant there in mid-July.

Davis, originally from Compton, California, is now in the Clark County Detention Centre in Las Vegas, where detainees’ phone calls are routinely recorded. If convicted at trial, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

In a recording of an October jail call, prosecutors say Davis’s son told the defendant about a “green light” authorisation. The court filing made no reference to Davis instructing anyone to harm someone, or to anyone associated with the case being physically harmed.

“In (Davis’) world, a ‘green light’ is an authorisation to kill,” prosecutors Marc DiGiacomo and Binu Palal told Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny in the court document, adding that at least one witness was provided assistance from federal authorities “so he could change his residence”.

Prosecutors also point to Davis’s own words since 2008 — in police interviews, in his 2019 tell-all memoir and in the media — that they say provides strong evidence that he orchestrated the September 1996 shooting.

Davis’s lawyers argue that his descriptions of Shakur’s killing were “done for entertainment purposes and to make money”.

Mr Arroyo and co-counsel Charles Cano have argued their 60-year-old client is in poor health after a battle with cancer that is in remission, poses no danger to the community, and will not flee to avoid trial. They want Kierny to set bail at not more than 100,000 dollars (£79,000).

Davis maintains that he was given immunity from prosecution in 2008 by FBI agents and Los Angeles police who were investigating the killings of Shakur in Las Vegas and rival rapper Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, six months later in Los Angeles.

Davis’s bail hearing is now scheduled for January 9.