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Shocking Tupac Murder Confession Revealed in Court · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: So I want you to imagine, just for a second,
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Speaker 1: sitting in this this federal interrogation room.
0:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, not a fun place to be, right, And.
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Speaker 1: The year is two thousand and eight. There's no you know,
0:10
Speaker 1: dramatic movie lighting, no two way mirror, just that stale air,
0:15
Speaker 1: humming fluorescent bulbs, and the just the suffocating pressure of
0:20
Speaker 1: a joint federal task force.
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Speaker 3: That kind of pressure is completely by design, by the way, exactly.
0:25
Speaker 1: And the investigators sitting across the table, they're methodically pressing
0:28
Speaker 1: this suspect about one of the most like thoroughly dissected,
0:32
Speaker 1: frustrating cold cases in American music history.
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Speaker 3: The nineteen ninety seven assassination of the notorious Big.
0:38
Speaker 1: Yes, they're looking for a crack, just a sliver of leverage, right,
0:43
Speaker 1: And the suspect staring back at them, he just casually
0:46
Speaker 1: shakes his head and says, uh, no, we didn't have
0:47
Speaker 1: anything to do with that one. We did the other one.
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Speaker 3: I mean, it is the kind of unprompted, catastrophic admission
0:52
Speaker 3: that completely paralyzes a room. It really is like they
0:56
Speaker 3: didn't ask about another murder. They weren't setting a trap.
0:58
Speaker 3: He just handed it to them.
1:00
Speaker 1: We did the other one boom. So today our mission
1:03
Speaker 1: is a deep diye into the source material surrounding the
1:05
Speaker 1: trial of Dlaane Keith D. Davis for the nineteen ninety
1:08
Speaker 1: six murder of Tupac Shakor, Right. And we are examining
1:11
Speaker 1: this trial nearly thirty years after the fact, which is wild,
1:15
Speaker 1: it's illegal, reckoning, resurrected almost entirely by that one singular
1:20
Speaker 1: slip at.
1:20
Speaker 3: The top, Yeah, that one moment in two thousand and eight.
1:23
Speaker 1: So to figure out how we got here, we're opening
1:26
Speaker 1: up the transcripts and testimonies from day four of the
1:30
Speaker 1: trial currently unfolding in Las Vegas.
1:33
Speaker 3: And you know, the documents we have on the table today,
1:35
Speaker 3: they give us this amazing multi generational view of the investigation.
1:39
Speaker 1: Right, because this spans decades exactly.
1:41
Speaker 3: We've got testimony from FBI agents who are working the
1:44
Speaker 3: gang task forces back in the late nineties. We have
1:46
Speaker 3: LAPD detectives who stumbled into that two thousand and eight confession.
1:50
Speaker 3: And we also have this deeply sobering perspective from Tupac's cousin,
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Speaker 3: Jamila Barnes, who has literally been sitting in the gallery
1:58
Speaker 3: of that courtroom every single day.
2:00
Speaker 1: Which we definitely need to get into later because that
2:02
Speaker 1: human element is so important. But right at the top,
2:05
Speaker 1: I think we need to clarify the fundamental premise of this.
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Speaker 3: Trial for everyone, right the orchestration aspect exactly.
2:12
Speaker 1: The prosecution is not standing in front of a jury
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Speaker 1: in Las Vegas arguing that Dwayne Davis physically pulled the
2:17
Speaker 1: trigger that night, No, they're not. The States argument is
2:20
Speaker 1: that Davis orchestrated the drive by, like he procured the weapon,
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Speaker 1: he positioned the vehicle, he gave the order, he was
2:27
Speaker 1: the shot caller.
2:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that distinction frames the central, just high wire
2:33
Speaker 3: tension of this entire trial, because the question becomes, how
2:37
Speaker 3: do you convict a man of orchestration based almost entirely
2:41
Speaker 3: on his own, changing, decades old confessions.
2:44
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm looking at this timeline and I'm struggling
2:47
Speaker 1: to reconcile how a chance slip up in a completely
2:50
Speaker 1: unrelated murder investigation just suddenly resurrects a case of this magnitude.
2:55
Speaker 3: Well, to understand how that happens, you really have to
2:57
Speaker 3: look at the structural mechanics of a federal task force,
3:00
Speaker 3: especially during that era.
3:01
Speaker 1: Okay, lay that out for us.
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Speaker 3: So These are not your everyday detective is working a
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Speaker 3: precinct desk. These are joint operations. You've got the FBI,
3:11
Speaker 3: the DEA atf LAPD.
3:13
Speaker 1: The whole alphabet soup.
3:15
Speaker 3: Exactly, and they are designed to bring the absolute maximum
3:19
Speaker 3: way of the federal government down on organized crime. So
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Speaker 3: high stakes, incredibly high. When you are pulled into an
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Speaker 3: interrogation room by a joint task force, you aren't looking
3:30
Speaker 3: at like a few years in a county jail. You
3:33
Speaker 3: are usually facing decades, if not life in a federal penitentiary.
3:37
Speaker 1: Wow.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the pressure is suffocating by design, and the investigators
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Speaker 3: use that leverage to shake the foundation of the suspect's life.
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Speaker 3: They're hoping to dislodge actionable intelligence.
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Speaker 1: But occasionally the intelligence that falls out belongs to an
3:50
Speaker 1: entirely different investigation, right, and.
3:52
Speaker 3: That's exactly what happened here.
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Speaker 1: But you know, to really contextualize that two thousand and
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Speaker 1: eight confession, we actually have to rewind.
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Speaker 3: Back to nineteen ninety eight.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to look at the story, the lie,
4:01
Speaker 1: or at least the heavily manipulated narrative that Davis fed
4:05
Speaker 1: the Feds a full decade earlier. So the setting is
4:08
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen ninety eight. FBI agent Wade Lee
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Speaker 1: is running a major gang task force in south central.
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Speaker 3: Los Angeles and Dwayne Davis finds himself caught in a
4:18
Speaker 3: massive federal net.
4:20
Speaker 1: Exactly, He's indicted on charges of trafficking two kilograms of cocaine.
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Speaker 3: Which context is critical here. In nineteen ninety eight, a
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Speaker 3: federal indictment for trafficking two kilos of cocaine was essentially
4:31
Speaker 3: a death sentence by incarceration.
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Speaker 1: Because of the laws at the time.
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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, this.
4:36
Speaker 3: Was the era of draconian federal sentencing guidelines. It was
4:39
Speaker 3: a remnant of the Crack era drug policies. Judges had very.
4:43
Speaker 2: Little discretion mandatory minimums.
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Speaker 3: Exactly, if you hit certain drug weights, you triggered mandatory
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Speaker 3: minimums that would easily put a man of Davis's age
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Speaker 3: away for the rest of his natural life.
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Speaker 1: So he was backed into a corner with absolutely no way.
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Speaker 3: Out, none other than a mechanism the legal system calls
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Speaker 3: a proffer.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I really want to break down the the actual
5:00
Speaker 1: logistics of a profit because it sounds like a legal
5:02
Speaker 1: magic trick to me.
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Speaker 3: It kind of is in a way, right, like if.
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Speaker 1: I am sitting in that room facing a life sentence.
5:09
Speaker 1: How does exchanging information for leniency actually work in practice?
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Speaker 3: Okay, So the mechanism of a profit is essentially a
5:16
Speaker 3: highly negotiated temporary ceasefire. Ceasefire, the suspect, who is heavily
5:21
Speaker 3: guarded by their defense attorney, sits down with federal prosecutors
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Speaker 3: and agents, and the suspect agrees to basically open the vault, like,
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Speaker 3: tell them everything, tell the government everything they know about
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Speaker 3: their own criminal network and any other high level crimes
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Speaker 3: they might have knowledge of.
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Speaker 1: Okay.
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Speaker 3: In exchange, the government grants a very specific type of immunity.
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Speaker 3: They agree that the statements made during this profit session
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Speaker 3: cannot be used as direct evidence to convict the suspect
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Speaker 3: of the crimes they are currently discussing.
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Speaker 1: Wait, so they can sit there and admit to drug
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Speaker 1: trafficking and the Feds can't use that admission in court
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Speaker 1: the next day.
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Speaker 3: Precisely, it allows the government to map out the criminal
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Speaker 3: underworld without the suspect pleading the Fifth Amendment every two seconds.
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Speaker 1: Wow, that makes sense.
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Speaker 3: But and this is a massive structural caveat built into
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Speaker 3: a proffer agreement. If the government can prove you lied,
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Speaker 3: or if you take the witness stand later and contradict
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Speaker 3: what you said in that room.
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Speaker 1: The immunity dissolves.
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Speaker 3: It evaporates entirely. Everything you said can and will be
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Speaker 3: used against you. It is this high wire act of
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Speaker 3: truth telling and strategic omission.
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Speaker 1: Okay, So that brings us back to Agent Wade Lee's
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Speaker 1: interrogation room in nineteen ninety eight. Davis is sitting there.
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Speaker 1: His life is effectively over unless he provides high value intelligence. Right,
6:37
Speaker 1: and Agent Lee knows exactly who Davis is, and he
6:40
Speaker 1: knows his proximity to the Las Vegas shooting just two
6:43
Speaker 1: years prior. So Lee asks him point blank about the
6:47
Speaker 1: murder of Tupac Shakur.
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Speaker 3: And Davis's response is an absolute denial.
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Speaker 1: Complete denial. He says he wasn't involved, he didn't orchestrate it,
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Speaker 1: he doesn't know who pulled the trigger. Yeah, but he
6:57
Speaker 1: doesn't just plead ignorance, which is the fascinating part. He
7:00
Speaker 1: actively points the investigation toward corrupt Compton police officers.
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Speaker 3: Claiming they were secretly operating on the payroll of Marion
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Speaker 3: Suge Knight, and the strategy Davis employees here is incredibly sophisticated.
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Speaker 3: I mean, he knows he has to give the FBI
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Speaker 3: something massive to earn his leniency.
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Speaker 1: Right, He can't just give them nothing exactly.
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Speaker 3: He is deflecting, yes, but he's doing it by weaponizing
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Speaker 3: rumors that were already deeply embedded in law.
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Speaker 2: Enforcement circles about Souge Knight.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, sous Knight, the CEO of Death Row Records, was
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Speaker 3: widely known to associate with the mob Pyrus, which was
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Speaker 3: a prominent bloods gang in Compton, right, and Davis, being
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Speaker 3: a high ranking figure in the rival Southside Compton Crips,
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Speaker 3: is effectively telling the FBI stop looking at me, look
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Speaker 3: at my heavily financed rivals, and look at the police
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Speaker 3: officers they've compromised.
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Speaker 1: And he doesn't just offer like vague conspiracy theories. The
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Speaker 1: transcript show Davis giving Agent Lee this granular forensic breakdown
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Speaker 1: of the underworld.
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Speaker 2: Economy, extremely detailed, it really is.
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Speaker 1: He claims that the entirety of Death Row Records was
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Speaker 1: initially capitalized by illicit drug money. He specifically names a
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Speaker 1: figure known as Harrio alongside a man named Patrick Johnson,
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Speaker 1: and Davis tells the FBI this highly specific anecdote He
8:15
Speaker 1: claims he personally owed Patrick Johnson money from a presous
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Speaker 1: drug transaction, and Johnson instructed Davis to take eighty thousand
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Speaker 1: dollars of that debt and handed directly to Johnson's girlfriend.
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Speaker 3: So she could use it to help launch death row records. Exactly,
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Speaker 3: you have to view this through the lens of a
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Speaker 3: federal investigator. When a suspect starts detailing the illicit capitalization
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Speaker 3: of a multimillion dollar music empire.
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Speaker 1: Complete with names, dollar amounts, money couriers.
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Speaker 3: Buy, takes notice. I mean federal agencies prioritize financial crimes
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Speaker 3: and organizational dismantling. Davis is feeding them exactly the kind
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Speaker 3: of structural intelligence they.
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Speaker 1: Crave, and he goes even further into the organizational chart.
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Speaker 1: He claims that Souge Knight essentially controlled the North Compton
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Speaker 1: drug trad using the mob Pyrus as his foot soldiers. Right,
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Speaker 1: Davis alleges that Knight was systematically bailing these gang members
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Speaker 1: out of jail in exchange for their total loyalty and
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Speaker 1: enforcement muscle.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, he's building a whole picture, and he.
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Speaker 1: Even provides a succession plan. He tells Agent Lee that
9:16
Speaker 1: when Souge Knight eventually went to prison, a man named
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Speaker 1: Reggie Wright Junior took over the day to day operations
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Speaker 1: of this network.
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Speaker 3: By detailing this, Davis accomplishes two major things. First, he
9:28
Speaker 3: establishes himself as a deeply embedded, highly reliable source of
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Speaker 3: intelligence on a major.
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Speaker 2: Federal target, right he proves his worth.
9:36
Speaker 3: Second, he meticulously builds the motive for why Souge Knight's
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Speaker 3: organization would need corrupt cops on the payroll in the
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Speaker 3: first place. He is constructing a massive alternative criminal universe
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Speaker 3: for the FBI to investigate.
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Speaker 1: One that completely occupies their resources. It exactly, but Davis
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Speaker 1: also admits to the reality on the ground. Like he
9:56
Speaker 1: tells Agent Lee about the fierce ongoing gang war between
9:59
Speaker 1: his SI outside Compton Cripps and the Compton Blood Pirates,
10:03
Speaker 1: he traces the immediate catalyst back to an altercation at
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Speaker 1: a mall which then spilled over to the MGM Grand
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Speaker 1: in Las Vegas on the night of the Mike Tyson fight,
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Speaker 1: and he specifically names Marcus Nunn and his own nephew,
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Speaker 1: Orlando Anderson, who was famously jumped and beaten by Tupac
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Speaker 1: and Suge Knight's entourage on the casino floor.
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Speaker 3: And the thing is, the MGM Grand brawl is a
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Speaker 3: matter of public record. It was captured on casino surveillance cameras.
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Speaker 3: Davis couldn't lie.
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Speaker 1: About it if he tried, right, The fens already knew
10:31
Speaker 1: that part. So Davis admits in this nineteen ninety eight
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Speaker 1: profer that he and Orlando Anderson were furious. He admits
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Speaker 1: the motive for retaliation was absolutely there. But here's the
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Speaker 1: pivot that I find so fascinating. He claims they were
10:46
Speaker 1: never going to retaliate in Las Vegas. Yeah, he tells
10:49
Speaker 1: the FBI that the police presence surrounding the Tyson fight
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Speaker 1: was far too heavy. His story is that they plan
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Speaker 1: to just absorb the disrespect for the night, drive back
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Speaker 1: to California, and strike back once everyone was on their
11:01
Speaker 1: home Turf and.
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Speaker 3: Compton, which brings us to the core psychological puzzle of
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Speaker 3: the nineteen ninety eight proffer. You have to ask yourself
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Speaker 3: why an informant would offer such damaging truth about the
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Speaker 3: gang war, openly admit to an intent to retaliate, map
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Speaker 3: out the financial structure of death Row.
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Speaker 1: But completely lie about the murder itself. Exactly I'm looking
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Speaker 1: at this from a strategic standpoint. Yeah, I'm highly skeptical
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Speaker 1: of Davis's narrative.
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Speaker 2: Here, as you should be right, like if you were.
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Speaker 1: Sitting in a room trying to avoid a life sentence.
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Speaker 1: Is pointing a finger at corrupt cops? Just a standard
11:33
Speaker 1: underworld defection tactic. Oh, absolutely, because this feels entirely like
11:37
Speaker 1: throwing a smoke bomb. He is throwing out the most tantalizing,
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Speaker 1: resource intensive target possible police corruption just to cover his
11:46
Speaker 1: own cruise escape route.
11:47
Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Why would he be so honest about the eighty thousand
11:50
Speaker 1: dollars handoff to a girlfriend but lie about the drive.
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Speaker 3: By The mechanism at play here is what we call
11:56
Speaker 3: credibility laundering.
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Speaker 1: Credibility laundry.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, the most effective lies are heavily insulated by verifiable truths.
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Speaker 2: Right, you wrap a lie in the truth exactly.
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Speaker 3: Davis knows the FBI can check his claims about the
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Speaker 3: MGM Grand Brawl. He knows they can investigate the financial
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Speaker 3: ties of Death Row by giving them high value, accurate
12:14
Speaker 3: intelligence on Puginite's operations. He builds a reservoir of credibility
12:19
Speaker 3: with agently so.
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Speaker 1: Once he establishes himself as an asset who provides good info.
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Speaker 1: His denial regarding the Tupac murder carries significantly more weight.
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Speaker 3: Yes, and deflecting to corrupt Compton police officers is brilliant
12:33
Speaker 3: from a survival.
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Speaker 2: Standpoint, because it's hard to prove, because.
12:37
Speaker 3: Investigating corrupt law enforcement requires massive internal affairs coordination. You
12:42
Speaker 3: need grand juries years of surveillance. It redirects the FBI's
12:46
Speaker 3: gaze entirely away from the South Side Compton crips.
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Speaker 1: Okay, so Davis successfully spins this massive narrative in nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety eight. But you know, an informant story is only
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Speaker 1: as solid as the detective work used.
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Speaker 3: To verify it, and that transition brings us directly into
13:01
Speaker 3: the Las Vegas courtroom today.
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Speaker 2: Right to the heart of the defense's strategy exactly.
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Speaker 3: The defense is not just arguing that Dwayne Davis is
13:08
Speaker 3: a liar. They are systematically dissecting the nineteen ninety eight
13:11
Speaker 3: FBI investigation to prove it was fundamentally broken.
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Speaker 1: And the trial transcripts from the cross examination of agent
13:17
Speaker 1: Wade Lee are incredibly tense, very tense. The defense's objective
13:21
Speaker 1: is singular and ruthless. They want to demonstrate to the
13:24
Speaker 1: jury that this nineteen ninety eight profit interview, which serves
13:27
Speaker 1: as the historical foundation of Davis's cooperation, was handled with
13:31
Speaker 1: staggering negligence by the federal government.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, they really hammer this point.
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Speaker 1: So the defense attorney pulls out a document from July fourteenth,
13:39
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight. It's an FBI form called a three
13:42
Speaker 1: ZHO two, which.
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Speaker 3: Is the official typed summary of an agent's interview.
13:46
Speaker 1: Right, and the defense stands in front of the jury
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Speaker 1: holding this document and starts going down a checklist of
13:52
Speaker 1: incredibly specific, mundane details that Davis provided during that profit Yeah,
13:58
Speaker 1: and he asks Agent Lee one by one, did you
14:01
Speaker 1: verify this? And the responses are jaw dropping.
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Speaker 3: The sheer volume of unverified logistical details in a homicide
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Speaker 3: investigation of this magnitude is it's difficult to comprehend from
14:12
Speaker 3: an investigative standpoint.
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Speaker 1: I really want to walk through this list, because if
14:15
Speaker 1: you're sitting on a jury, this is where reasonable doubt
14:17
Speaker 1: is born. Absolutely First, Davis claimed in nineteen ninety eight
14:21
Speaker 1: that on the night of the murder, his nephew Orlando Anderson,
14:24
Speaker 1: along with their girlfriends, went up to a specific hotel
14:27
Speaker 1: room at the ex Caliber Casino okay. Davis stated clearly
14:30
Speaker 1: that the room was bicked under Orlando Anderson's name. So
14:34
Speaker 1: the defense looks at agently and asks, did you ever
14:37
Speaker 1: call the ex caliber to subpoena their records and verify
14:39
Speaker 1: if there was a room registered to Orlando Anderson in
14:42
Speaker 1: September nineteen ninety six?
14:43
Speaker 3: And Agent Lee's answer on the stand.
14:46
Speaker 1: No, I did not specifically know.
14:47
Speaker 3: I mean that is investigative basic training. A simple subpoena
14:51
Speaker 3: to the hotel's billing department would have definitively placed the
14:55
Speaker 3: suspects at the location they claimed to be establishing a timeline.
14:59
Speaker 1: And it gets worse. Davis claimed he drove to Las
15:02
Speaker 1: Vegas that weekend in a land cruiser. The defense asks
15:06
Speaker 1: Agent Lee if he checked DMV records, vehicle registrations, or
15:10
Speaker 1: even highway border crossing cameras to see if Davis owned, rented,
15:15
Speaker 1: or had access to a land cruiser, and the answer
15:17
Speaker 1: is no. The answer is no. Then Davis gave the
15:20
Speaker 1: FBI a highly specific manifest of individuals he claimed traveled
15:24
Speaker 1: in his convoy to Vegas.
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Speaker 2: He names Corey Edwards, Schevin Davis.
15:28
Speaker 1: Terry Brown, and two guys known as Big Dre and win.
15:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:32
Speaker 1: The defense asked agently if he verified if any of
15:34
Speaker 1: those specific human beings purchased plane tickets, booked hotels, or
15:38
Speaker 1: stopped by police in Nevada.
15:39
Speaker 3: That weekend, and again agently admits on the stand no,
15:42
Speaker 3: I did.
15:42
Speaker 1: Not, And we arrive at the most glaring investigative failure
15:45
Speaker 1: of the nineteen ninety eight.
15:46
Speaker 3: Profer the corrupt cops.
15:49
Speaker 1: Yes, Davis explicitly alleged that corrupt Compton police officers orchestrated
15:55
Speaker 1: and committed the murder in Las Vegas. This was his
15:57
Speaker 1: entire alibi. The defense asks agently if he ever launched
16:02
Speaker 1: an investigation or even made preliminary inquiries into the possibility
16:06
Speaker 1: that Compton PD was involved, as his own star informant claimed, and.
16:10
Speaker 3: Agently admits on the record that he did not specifically
16:14
Speaker 3: look into it.
16:15
Speaker 1: I am looking at this from a basic risk assessment standpoint. Right.
16:18
Speaker 1: If I walk into a bank and ask for a
16:20
Speaker 1: million dollar business loan, and I hand the loan officer
16:23
Speaker 1: a cocktail napkin with I promise I have collateral written
16:26
Speaker 1: on it.
16:27
Speaker 3: They don't just hand you the cash, No, they.
16:29
Speaker 1: Run a credit check, they appraised the assets agently. Is
16:32
Speaker 1: essentially granting a massive investigative loan, redirecting federal resources, and
16:37
Speaker 1: offering leniency based on a napkin note from a guy
16:40
Speaker 1: trying to avoid life in prison.
16:41
Speaker 3: That's a great way to put it.
16:42
Speaker 1: If the FBI didn't even make a phone call to
16:44
Speaker 1: the Excalibur hotel billing department, how can the jury trust
16:48
Speaker 1: anything the government says about this investigation.
16:50
Speaker 3: Well, the mechanism the defense is utilizing here is the
16:53
Speaker 3: total erosion of institutional authority.
16:56
Speaker 1: Right.
16:56
Speaker 3: They know the jury is eventually going to hear about
16:58
Speaker 3: the two thousand and eight confession where David submits to everything.
17:01
Speaker 3: So the defense has to poison the well before the
17:05
Speaker 3: prosecution gets there.
17:06
Speaker 1: Oh iisy.
17:06
Speaker 3: It is not actually about whether Davis drove a land cruiser.
17:10
Speaker 3: It is about establishing a pervasive, undeniable pattern of sloppy
17:14
Speaker 3: police work.
17:15
Speaker 1: Got it.
17:16
Speaker 3: The defense is implicitly asking the jury, if the federal
17:20
Speaker 3: agent in charge of this case couldn't be bothered to
17:22
Speaker 3: check a hotel receipt, what else did they miss? What
17:25
Speaker 3: exculpatory evidence did they ignore because it was inconvenient?
17:28
Speaker 1: So if you can prove the foundation of the investigation
17:31
Speaker 1: is built on lazy unverified assumptions.
17:34
Speaker 3: You force the jury to view the eventual confession not
17:37
Speaker 3: as a triumph of justice, but as the chaotic byproduct
17:40
Speaker 3: of a broken system.
17:41
Speaker 1: Wow. So, because of this lack of verification and Davis's
17:45
Speaker 1: successful misdirection, the nineteen ninety eight trail essentially goes cold.
17:49
Speaker 1: It does, but fast forward exactly ten years to two
17:52
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, the legal landscape shifts dramatically. The pressure
17:56
Speaker 1: mounts on Davis all over again, and a completely different
17:58
Speaker 1: set of investigators stumbles into the admission of a lifetime.
18:02
Speaker 3: This is where the timeline accelerates. In two thousand and eight,
18:05
Speaker 3: a massive joint task force comprising the LAPD, FBI, DEA,
18:09
Speaker 3: and ATF is intensely focused on solving the nineteen ninety
18:13
Speaker 3: seven murder of Christopher Wallace, the notorious Big Right, and
18:17
Speaker 3: two of the key LAPD detectives driving this task force
18:20
Speaker 3: are Greg Kating and Darren Dupree, and through their narcotics investigations,
18:24
Speaker 3: Dwayne Keith d. Davis finds himself squarely back in the
18:27
Speaker 3: crosshairs of federal law enforcement.
18:29
Speaker 1: And the stakes in two thousand and eight are arguably
18:31
Speaker 1: even higher for Davis. He isn't just looking at a
18:33
Speaker 1: two kilo cocaine charge. This time, no, he is facing
18:36
Speaker 1: life in prison for trafficking massive quantities of both PCP
18:40
Speaker 1: and cocaine. The task force has him dead to rights
18:42
Speaker 1: on the narcotics. They are the wire taps, they have.
18:45
Speaker 2: The surveill they have everything.
18:46
Speaker 1: Everything. So they pull him into an interrogation room and
18:50
Speaker 1: offer him a very specific deal. They tell him, we
18:53
Speaker 1: have you on the drugs. You are going away forever,
18:56
Speaker 1: but if you sit down and talk to us about
18:58
Speaker 1: the Biggie Small's assassination, we will negotiate.
19:01
Speaker 3: And the operational focus of this room is entirely on
19:05
Speaker 3: Christopher Wallace. Right, Detectives Cating and Dupree bring Davis in
19:09
Speaker 3: alongside his defense attorney and a federal prosecutor, and they
19:13
Speaker 3: begin methodically pressing him for any intelligence regarding the Biggie.
19:17
Speaker 1: Murder, and Davis looks at Detective Dupree and flatly denies
19:21
Speaker 1: any knowledge of the Biggie hit. Yeah, but then, entirely unprompted,
19:26
Speaker 1: he drops the bombshell that changes the trajectory of the
19:29
Speaker 1: next fifteen years. He says, no, we didn't have anything
19:31
Speaker 1: to do with that one. We did the other one.
19:32
Speaker 3: Detective Dupree's testimony about this specific moment is fascinating.
19:36
Speaker 1: Oh I bet.
19:37
Speaker 3: He described a profound silence washing over the room. The
19:41
Speaker 3: investigators were caught completely off guard. They asked for clarification
19:44
Speaker 3: that one, what do you mean? And Davis simply repeats it,
19:47
Speaker 3: we did the other one. Dupre noted that in the
19:50
Speaker 3: context of high profile unsolved nineties hip hop assassinations, the
19:55
Speaker 3: only other one of that magnitude was Tupac Shakur. Right,
19:59
Speaker 3: but the task hadn't asked a single question about Las Vegas.
20:02
Speaker 3: Davis offered the keys to the kingdom voluntarily.
20:06
Speaker 1: I am struggling to understand the psychology of that moment. Yeah,
20:09
Speaker 1: how does a seasoned LAPD detective like Darren Dupree maintain
20:14
Speaker 1: his composure.
20:15
Speaker 3: It's incredibly hard because.
20:17
Speaker 1: It's like you were executing a search warrant for a
20:19
Speaker 1: stolen bicycle. You lift up a tarp in the garage
20:22
Speaker 1: and you accidentally uncover the map to a famous unsolved bankheist.
20:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly what it's like. It requires a men's
20:28
Speaker 3: professional discipline, Yeah, to pretestify that they were internally shook.
20:32
Speaker 3: But as an interrogator, when a suspect willingly starts walking
20:35
Speaker 3: out onto that bridge. You have to calmly walk right
20:37
Speaker 3: beside them.
20:38
Speaker 1: You can't act surprised, right, you.
20:40
Speaker 3: Don't react with shock. You immediately begin documenting the shift
20:43
Speaker 3: in the narrative. Because that single unprompted slip up provided
20:46
Speaker 3: the legal justification to schedule a formal, dedicated profit interview
20:51
Speaker 3: on December eighteenth, two thousand and eight, focusing entirely on
20:54
Speaker 3: the Tupac murder, and the.
20:56
Speaker 1: Details Davis provides in this December two thousand and eight
20:59
Speaker 1: interview are violently specific. Like he completely abandons the nineteen
21:04
Speaker 1: ninety eight fairy tale about corrupt Compton Cox.
21:07
Speaker 2: He throws that right out the window.
21:09
Speaker 1: He places himself directly inside the machinery of the murder.
21:13
Speaker 1: According to Detective Dupree's testimony detailing this confession, Davis admits
21:18
Speaker 1: that he was physically present inside the infamous white Cadillac
21:22
Speaker 1: that pulled up alongside Suge Knight's BMW on the Las Vegas.
21:25
Speaker 3: Strip, which is huge. Placing himself inside the suspect vehicle
21:29
Speaker 3: is a massive admission against his own legal interests. Right,
21:32
Speaker 3: he is moving from an observer to a participant.
21:34
Speaker 1: And the granularity of the confession is chilling. Davis admits
21:38
Speaker 1: that he personally possessed a point four zero caliber handgun
21:41
Speaker 1: in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac.
21:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
21:44
Speaker 1: He tells a task force that as their vehicle pulled
21:46
Speaker 1: up on the passenger side of Suge Knight's car, which
21:49
Speaker 1: was the side where Tubac was sitting, Davis realized he
21:52
Speaker 1: was in a tactical.
21:52
Speaker 2: Disadvantage because of where he was sitting.
21:55
Speaker 1: Exactly, He couldn't physically shoot across the driver of his
21:58
Speaker 1: own car to establish clear line of sight to the target.
22:02
Speaker 1: So Davis admits he took the point forty caliber weapon
22:05
Speaker 1: and handed it into the back seat to a man
22:08
Speaker 1: named dre Andre Smith.
22:09
Speaker 3: But according to the narrative Davis provides, Andre Smith panicked. Yeah,
22:14
Speaker 3: the reality of the moment hit him and he froze right.
22:17
Speaker 1: And sitting directly next to Andre Smith in the backseat
22:20
Speaker 1: of the Cadillac is Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson.
22:23
Speaker 3: The same Orlando Anderson, the.
22:25
Speaker 1: Exact same Orlando Anderson who had been brutally beaten by
22:28
Speaker 1: Tupac and Suge Knight on the floor of the MGM
22:31
Speaker 1: Grand just hours earlier. Yeah, Davis tells detect is cading
22:35
Speaker 1: in Dupree that Orlando, fueled by the humiliation and anger
22:38
Speaker 1: of that casino beatdown, physically grabbed the point forty caliber
22:42
Speaker 1: handgun from the panic Andre Smith. He took the gun,
22:44
Speaker 1: he leaned over, anged out the window, and fired across
22:48
Speaker 1: Smith into Suge Knight's car, fatally striking Tupac.
22:51
Speaker 3: And this specific sequence of events is exactly why Duyne
22:54
Speaker 3: Davis is currently on trial.
22:56
Speaker 1: Right, going back to the orchestration point right, we have.
22:59
Speaker 3: To look at the underlaying legal mechanism of the felony
23:02
Speaker 3: murder rule and accomplice liability. In the eyes of the
23:05
Speaker 3: Nevada penal code, you do not have to pull the
23:07
Speaker 3: trigger to be charged with murder, Okay, if you procure
23:10
Speaker 3: the weapon, hand it to the shooters, and orchestrate the
23:13
Speaker 3: vehicle's position with the shared intent to commit a lesal act,
23:17
Speaker 3: your culpability is identical to the person firing the gun.
23:21
Speaker 1: So by admitting to passing the point forty caliber weapon,
23:25
Speaker 1: Davis perfectly outlined his own felony murder liability.
23:28
Speaker 3: He essentially convicted himself right there.
23:31
Speaker 1: But the two thousand and eight confession doesn't stop at
23:33
Speaker 1: the mechanics of the drive by, Davis introduces a massive,
23:37
Speaker 1: headline grabbing new motive into the interrogation room.
23:40
Speaker 3: Oh, this part is wild, It really is.
23:42
Speaker 1: He pivots the narrative from a simple spontaneous act of
23:45
Speaker 1: gang retaliation into a highly financed contract hit. Yeah, and
23:48
Speaker 1: by introducing this new element, he gives the defense yet
23:51
Speaker 1: another massive target to attack during cross examination.
23:54
Speaker 3: Because the scale of the investigation drastically expands here, Davis
23:59
Speaker 3: claims to the task force that Sean Puffy Combs, the
24:03
Speaker 3: multimillionaire head of bad Boy Records deeply embroiled in the
24:06
Speaker 3: East Coast West Coast feud, was actually the financial backer
24:09
Speaker 3: who was supposed to pay for the assassination of Tupac, and.
24:13
Speaker 1: Davis provides a very specific logistical money trail for this
24:16
Speaker 1: alleged hit.
24:17
Speaker 2: Right.
24:18
Speaker 1: He claims that Combs was supposed to route the payment
24:21
Speaker 1: through a New York based narcotics dealer named Zip Martin.
24:25
Speaker 1: Zip was allegedly acting as the underworld middleman tasked withholding
24:29
Speaker 1: the money and passing the payout directly to Davis for
24:32
Speaker 1: executing the murder.
24:33
Speaker 3: You have to understand how a federal task force reacts
24:35
Speaker 3: to intelligence like.
24:36
Speaker 2: This, sox salivating right exactly.
24:38
Speaker 3: The allegation of a cross country murder for higher conspiracy
24:42
Speaker 3: funded by a global music executive is the exact type
24:46
Speaker 3: of complex, high profile case federal agencies are built to pursue.
24:50
Speaker 3: The Task Force immediately pivoted their resources to corroborate this
24:54
Speaker 3: financial link. They developed a high risk operational plan based
24:58
Speaker 3: entirely on Davis's intelligence. Detectives Catering and Dupree, alongside federal agents,
25:04
Speaker 3: actually flew Dwayne Davis across the country to New York.
25:08
Speaker 1: Wait. They flew him out there.
25:09
Speaker 3: Yes, The tactical objective was to wire Davis up, have
25:13
Speaker 3: him work undercover, to re establish contact with Zip Martin,
25:16
Speaker 3: and get Zip on a recorded line discussing the assassination
25:20
Speaker 3: money allegedly provided by Sean Combs.
25:23
Speaker 1: I am looking at the timeline of this New York
25:25
Speaker 1: sting operation and it is a complete disaster.
25:29
Speaker 3: It fell apart completely.
25:31
Speaker 1: By the time the task Force secures the funding, sits
25:33
Speaker 1: up the surveillance, and flies Davis to New York, Zip
25:36
Speaker 1: Martin is in the final stages of terminal cancer. Yeah,
25:38
Speaker 1: he is physically incapacitated. He's completely incapable of conducting underworld business,
25:44
Speaker 1: let alone incriminating himself on a federal wire tab.
25:46
Speaker 3: No, it was never going to work.
25:47
Speaker 1: The entire undercover operation implodes. They get absolutely nothing on tape.
25:52
Speaker 3: And that operational failure becomes the cornerstone of the defense's strategy.
25:56
Speaker 3: In the current trial. The defense is presented with an
26:00
Speaker 3: another staggering cinematic claim made by Davis and another law
26:04
Speaker 3: enforcement task force that completely fails to corroborate it with
26:07
Speaker 3: physical evidence.
26:09
Speaker 1: The cross examination of detected Duprex on this point feels
26:12
Speaker 1: like a direct echo of the nineteen ninety eight failures.
26:15
Speaker 3: Oh very much so.
26:16
Speaker 1: The defense attorney stands up, faces Duprex on the stand
26:20
Speaker 1: and asks him, point blank, were you able to verify
26:23
Speaker 1: any of that information regarding New York, the money transfer
26:27
Speaker 1: and Zip Martin to be true?
26:28
Speaker 3: And Detective Dupree is forced to answer under oath no.
26:31
Speaker 1: But the defense is relentless. They don't just attack the
26:34
Speaker 1: failed New York sting. They aggressively pivot back to the
26:38
Speaker 1: fundamental mechanics of the Las AGAs shooting, highlighting a deeply
26:41
Speaker 1: concerning investigative blind spot.
26:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a major misstep by the task force.
26:45
Speaker 1: This is the part of the transcript that genuinely frustrates me.
26:48
Speaker 1: During the two thousand and eight proffer, Davis explicitly named
26:52
Speaker 1: the other men sitting inside that white Cadillac. One of
26:54
Speaker 1: those men, Terence Brown, was actually still alive in May
26:58
Speaker 1: of the year this testimony was unfolding. Yes, the defense
27:01
Speaker 1: attorney asks detective Dupree a very basic homicide detective question,
27:07
Speaker 1: did you ever verify that Terrence Brown was actually in
27:10
Speaker 1: the state of Nevada at the time of the murder?
27:12
Speaker 3: And dupre admits they never got around to it.
27:14
Speaker 1: Never got around to it. When pressed on why they
27:17
Speaker 1: didn't take the alibi of a living accomplice to Pre
27:21
Speaker 1: testifies that the task force's absolute first priority was trying
27:25
Speaker 1: to establish the financial link to Sean Combs.
27:27
Speaker 3: They wanted the conspiracy, Yes.
27:29
Speaker 1: They wanted to build the conspiracy from the money down,
27:32
Speaker 1: so they simply didn't prioritize verifying if the men Davis
27:35
Speaker 1: claimed were in the shooter's car were actually in Las Vegas.
27:39
Speaker 3: And that admission on the stand is incredibly damaging. The
27:41
Speaker 3: defense is masterfully exposing what they argue is law enforcement's
27:46
Speaker 3: blinding obsession with celebrity over fundamental homicide protocol.
27:50
Speaker 1: I mean, I have to challenge the logic of this
27:52
Speaker 1: task force. I'm looking at this from a basic prioritization standpoint.
27:56
Speaker 1: You'd have a suspect sitting in a room admitting on
27:59
Speaker 1: tape to orc illestrating the most infamous drive by in
28:01
Speaker 1: American history. He hands you a list of the accompasses
28:05
Speaker 1: in the vehicle. Right, at least one of those accomplices
28:08
Speaker 1: is a live, breathing and presumably walk in the streets.
28:12
Speaker 1: But instead of immediately verifying the alibi the living accomplice,
28:15
Speaker 1: you put that on the back burner so you can
28:17
Speaker 1: fly across the country to chase a phantom payout with
28:20
Speaker 1: a dying middleman.
28:22
Speaker 3: It sounds absurd when you put it like that.
28:24
Speaker 1: Is this just institutional tunnel vision?
28:26
Speaker 3: Well, the underlying mechanism here is the kingpins psychology that
28:30
Speaker 3: drives federal funding and task force prestige.
28:33
Speaker 1: Kingpin psychology.
28:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, think about it. If you arrest a local gang
28:37
Speaker 3: member for a decade old homicide, you close a case,
28:40
Speaker 3: but it remains a local victory. However, if you can
28:43
Speaker 3: decisively connect a global music mogul to a bi coastal
28:47
Speaker 3: murder for hire, syndicate involving New York drug traffickers and
28:50
Speaker 3: Los Angeles gang wars. That's a movie that is a
28:54
Speaker 3: career defining legacy, cementing federal takedown. The gravitational pull of
28:59
Speaker 3: that Kingpin theory is so immense that it warps their
29:02
Speaker 3: basic investigative priorities. Right, the defense is arguing to the
29:07
Speaker 3: jury that the police were so hypnotized by the prospect
29:10
Speaker 3: of arresting a celebrity that they abandoned rudimentary detective work.
29:14
Speaker 3: Terence Brown doesn't generate press conferences Sean cons does.
29:18
Speaker 1: And by chasing the headline, they failed to corroborate the
29:21
Speaker 1: confession exactly. So let's assess the structural integrity the prosecution's
29:26
Speaker 1: case at this point in the trial. The defense has
29:29
Speaker 1: successfully highlighted massive jurisdictional failures and unverified claims in the
29:34
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eight investigation check. Now they have successfully exposed
29:38
Speaker 1: severe investigative tunnel vision and unverified conspiracy claims in the
29:43
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight investigation check. The physical evidence is
29:46
Speaker 1: practically non existent, So the entire weight of this trial
29:49
Speaker 1: now balances precariously on one deep psychological question for the jury.
29:54
Speaker 3: Was he telling the truth.
29:55
Speaker 1: Was Dwayne Davis telling the terrifying truth in two thousand
29:58
Speaker 1: and eight about his nephew pulling the trigger? Or was
30:00
Speaker 1: he just fabricating a story he knew the task Force
30:03
Speaker 1: desperately wanted to hear so he could escape his drug charges.
30:06
Speaker 3: And the prosecution is acutely aware that their credibility has
30:09
Speaker 3: taken a massive hit following that cross examination all they
30:13
Speaker 3: have to know. So during redirect, which is the phase
30:16
Speaker 3: of the trial where the prosecution attempts to rehabilitate their witness,
30:19
Speaker 3: they ask Detective Dupree the most fundamental strip down question
30:23
Speaker 3: of the entire case. They ask him simply, did you
30:26
Speaker 3: believe him?
30:27
Speaker 1: And Dupree's justification for believing Davis is deeply rooted in
30:31
Speaker 1: his understanding of gang culture and family dynamics.
30:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a very emotional response.
30:35
Speaker 1: Dupree explains to the jury that Orlando Anderson was not
30:39
Speaker 1: just another gang member. He was considered the prince of
30:42
Speaker 1: their neighborhood. He was fiercely protected and deeply loved by
30:46
Speaker 1: his family, especially by his uncle Keith d Yeah. Dupree
30:50
Speaker 1: states on the stand with absolute, unwavering conviction that Davis
30:55
Speaker 1: would never lie to put smut on his own nephew's name.
30:58
Speaker 1: He insists Davis would never falsely place the ultimate murder
31:02
Speaker 1: weapon in Orlando's hand unless it was the undeniable historical truth.
31:07
Speaker 1: Do pretestifies in the neighborhood. He's a hero in the world,
31:11
Speaker 1: he's a villain. I didn't think mister Davis would do
31:14
Speaker 1: that unless it was true with his own nephew, because
31:16
Speaker 1: I know he loved his nephew.
31:18
Speaker 3: It is a profoundly emotional argument from a veteran detective.
31:21
Speaker 3: He is asking the jury to look past the missing
31:23
Speaker 3: hotel receipts and understand the unwritten, ironclad rules of gang loyalty.
31:28
Speaker 1: The code.
31:29
Speaker 3: Basically, yeah, The logic is, you might lie about corrupt
31:33
Speaker 3: police officers to stall an investigation. You might invent a
31:36
Speaker 3: music mogul's payout to sound important, but you absolutely do
31:40
Speaker 3: not falsely accuse your beloved deceased nephew of the most
31:43
Speaker 3: infamous murder of the century simply to negotiate a drunk charge.
31:47
Speaker 1: The emotional cost is too high, that's the argument. Yes,
31:50
Speaker 1: But the defense brilliantly anticipates this emotional argument and sets
31:54
Speaker 1: a psychological trap. This was a smart move During their
31:57
Speaker 1: cross examination of Detective Duprexense, totorney forced Dupree to acknowledge
32:01
Speaker 1: a very specific, documented pattern in Davis's criminal history. The
32:05
Speaker 1: defense gets du Pree to admit on the stand that
32:08
Speaker 1: Davis had a known, established history of taking the hit
32:11
Speaker 1: for his family. He had a track record of claiming
32:14
Speaker 1: responsibility for things he didn't do to protect his children,
32:17
Speaker 1: his wife, and his inner circle from facing federal prison time.
32:21
Speaker 3: The psychological paradox the jury is forced to resolve here
32:24
Speaker 3: is incredibly complex. The defense is actively painting a portrait
32:28
Speaker 3: of a man who views himself as a martyr for
32:31
Speaker 3: his family. If Davis has a documented history of lying
32:34
Speaker 3: to law enforcement to protect his living relatives from incarceration,
32:38
Speaker 3: who is to say he isn't employing the exact same
32:41
Speaker 3: strategy in two thousand and eight?
32:42
Speaker 1: Right, If his primary motivation is shielding his living family,
32:46
Speaker 1: why would we suddenly assume he is telling the gospel
32:49
Speaker 1: truth when he implicates his nephew.
32:51
Speaker 3: Well, you have to look at the brutal calculus of
32:53
Speaker 3: a profit agreement. Truth in an interrogation room is a
32:56
Speaker 3: highly volatile currency. Davis knows the task worse needs the
33:00
Speaker 3: TUPAC murderer solved to justify their existence. But Orlando Anderson
33:04
Speaker 3: is already dead by two thousand and eight.
33:06
Speaker 1: He was killed in a shootout.
33:07
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, he was killed in an entirely unrelated gang
33:11
Speaker 3: shootout in Compton back in nineteen ninety eight. So from
33:15
Speaker 3: a purely cynical survival oriented standpoint, blaming a dead man
33:20
Speaker 3: is the most strategically brilliant move you can make in
33:22
Speaker 3: the underworld.
33:23
Speaker 1: Oh wow, because a dead man can't be prosecuted, a.
33:26
Speaker 3: Deceased suspect cannot be indicted, cannot go to federal prison,
33:30
Speaker 3: and most importantly, cannot retaliate against you or your living family.
33:35
Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
33:36
Speaker 3: So Detective Dupre believes the profound love for the nephew
33:39
Speaker 3: guarantees the confession is true. The defense argues that the desperate,
33:43
Speaker 3: primal need to save his living family guarantees the confession
33:46
Speaker 3: is a calculated lie built on a dead man's back.
33:49
Speaker 1: It is a tragic Gordian knot of gangland psychology that
33:53
Speaker 1: the jury is tasked with untangling.
33:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, good luck to them.
33:56
Speaker 1: I want to pause here though, because we have spent
33:59
Speaker 1: the last fifty minute. It's deeply submerged in the clinical
34:02
Speaker 1: bureaucratic machinery of a murder trial.
34:04
Speaker 3: The mechanics of it all right.
34:06
Speaker 1: We have dissepted the leverage of profer agreements, the jurisdictional
34:10
Speaker 1: failures of FBI three H two forms, the funding priorities
34:14
Speaker 1: of joint task forces, and the cynical chess match of
34:16
Speaker 1: cross examinations. But in the midst of analyzing this true
34:21
Speaker 1: crime puzzle, there is a massive, gaping void in the conversation.
34:25
Speaker 1: The human element, A real, breathing human being was violently
34:29
Speaker 1: murdered on the Las Vegas trip and an entire family
34:32
Speaker 1: was shattered.
34:32
Speaker 3: It's so true. The clinical nature of the legal system
34:35
Speaker 3: often reduces the victim to a mere plot device, just
34:38
Speaker 3: an abstract concept used to debate points of law.
34:41
Speaker 1: Right he becomes a case file.
34:42
Speaker 3: This is especially true when the victim is a global
34:45
Speaker 3: mythological icon like Tupac Shakur. But the source material for
34:49
Speaker 3: this trial provides a deeply visceral, necessary grounding through the
34:53
Speaker 3: presence of Jamila Barnes' Tupac's cousin.
34:55
Speaker 2: Who has refused to look away exactly.
34:58
Speaker 1: Jumila serves as a board member for the Tupac Shakur
35:00
Speaker 1: Foundation and her dedication is staggering. She's been sitting in
35:04
Speaker 1: the gallery of that Las Vegas courtroom every single day
35:07
Speaker 1: of this trial, every day, and the reality she describes
35:10
Speaker 1: of occupying that physical space is harrowing. She spoke about
35:15
Speaker 1: the profound, visceral discomfort of the courtroom dynamics. She described
35:19
Speaker 1: the deeply chilling experience of Dwayne Davis turning from the
35:22
Speaker 1: defense table and making direct, sustained eye contact with the
35:26
Speaker 1: surviving family.
35:27
Speaker 3: Members, just staring them down.
35:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, the psychological intimidation was so intense that the family
35:32
Speaker 1: eventually had to petition the courtroom marshals to intervene. The
35:36
Speaker 1: judge had to actually instruct Davis to face the front
35:38
Speaker 1: of the room and stop staring at the victim's family.
35:42
Speaker 3: I mean, the sheer endurance required to sit through a
35:45
Speaker 3: trial of this magnitude is difficult to overstate. It is
35:48
Speaker 3: not simply the psychological toll of being in the same
35:51
Speaker 3: room as the accused. It is the forced, inescapable confrontation
35:55
Speaker 3: with the forensic brutality of the death itself.
35:58
Speaker 1: Jamila detailed the horrific reality of the evidentiary phase. She
36:02
Speaker 1: explained how the prosecution was legally required to display the
36:05
Speaker 1: graphic autopsy photos of her cousin to the joy.
36:08
Speaker 3: Which is standard but awful.
36:10
Speaker 1: It was so overwhelming that half of the family members
36:13
Speaker 1: had to immediately flee the courtroom. Jamila tried to stay.
36:17
Speaker 1: She reasoned that because some of these images had leaked
36:20
Speaker 1: into the dark corners of the Internet over the decades,
36:23
Speaker 1: she might be emotionally calloused enough to endure it. But
36:25
Speaker 1: seeing them like that, yeah, she said, the high definition
36:28
Speaker 1: photos projected in that sterile courtroom were so violently intimate
36:32
Speaker 1: and so deeply traumatic to process that she too, eventually
36:36
Speaker 1: had to excuse herself.
36:37
Speaker 3: The contrast here is incredibly sharp. You have defense attorneys
36:41
Speaker 3: and prosecutors clinically debating whether a hotel receipt was properly
36:44
Speaker 3: logged in nineteen ninety eight, and mere feet away, a
36:47
Speaker 3: woman is being forced to visually relive the mutilation of
36:50
Speaker 3: her cousin because the criminal justice system took three decades
36:53
Speaker 3: to bring this evidence to trial.
36:55
Speaker 1: But Jamila doesn't let the darkness of that courtroom defined
36:58
Speaker 1: her cousin. She actively fights back against the forensic horror
37:03
Speaker 1: by sharing a beautiful, anchoring core memory.
37:05
Speaker 3: I love this part right.
37:08
Speaker 1: She juxtaposes the stark reality of the autopsy photos with
37:12
Speaker 1: a memory from her ninth birthday party. She recalls being
37:16
Speaker 1: in her mother's basement, surrounded by cousins, neighbors, and family friends.
37:19
Speaker 1: And right in the center of the room, surrounded by
37:22
Speaker 1: this circle of kids, was her older cousin Tupac.
37:25
Speaker 3: Just be a normal guy.
37:26
Speaker 1: He wasn't a gangland target. He was just an active,
37:29
Speaker 1: vibrant family member leading the kids in a song, hyping
37:33
Speaker 1: everybody up for dance competition, just radiating creative energy.
37:37
Speaker 3: That specific, intimate image of a young man leading a
37:40
Speaker 3: dance competition at a ninth birthday party completely shatters the
37:44
Speaker 3: two dimensional, untouchable gangster celebrity mythos that the media has
37:48
Speaker 3: superimposed over him for thirty years.
37:51
Speaker 1: It rehumanizes him instantly, It really does. She spoke so
37:54
Speaker 1: eloquently about the true nature of his legacy. She reminded
37:57
Speaker 1: everyone that he wasn't just a distant star or a
37:59
Speaker 1: track hip hop cautionary tale. He operated from a place
38:03
Speaker 1: of profound empathy. His lyrics, his phrenetic interviews. He has
38:06
Speaker 1: undeniable passion. They were all deeply rooted in a desperate
38:11
Speaker 1: fight for the equality of humankind, not just advocating from
38:15
Speaker 1: one specific group, but demanding dignity for everyone.
38:18
Speaker 3: And Jamila firmly believes that this underlying empathy is the
38:22
Speaker 3: exact reason why his voice still resonates so powerfully with
38:26
Speaker 3: young people today.
38:27
Speaker 1: People who weren't even born when he.
38:28
Speaker 3: Died, exactly entirely new generations. They can still find their
38:32
Speaker 3: own struggles reflected in what he stood for, and.
38:34
Speaker 1: When asked about her perspective on the trial itself and
38:37
Speaker 1: the impending verdict, her response was just a masterclass in
38:40
Speaker 1: quiet dignity.
38:41
Speaker 3: She was very measured.
38:42
Speaker 1: She didn't demand vengeance. She explicitly acknowledged the heavy burden
38:46
Speaker 1: of the legal standard, noting that Dwayne Davis is entirely
38:50
Speaker 1: innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. However,
38:53
Speaker 1: having sat through every grueling minute of the testimony, she
38:56
Speaker 1: stated firmly that she believes there is clear evidence of
39:00
Speaker 1: his direct involvement in the pyramid of it all. She
39:04
Speaker 1: expressed a quiet, enduring hope that the prosecution can finally
39:08
Speaker 1: bring this decades long saga full circle and that proper
39:12
Speaker 1: ledally sound consequences are finally served.
39:15
Speaker 3: I think we all hope for that kind of closure.
39:17
Speaker 1: So I want you to hold onto that stark emotional contrast.
39:20
Speaker 1: As we wrap up this analysis, we can so easily
39:23
Speaker 1: lose ourselves in the intoxicating mechanics of the true crime puzzle,
39:26
Speaker 1: the white cadillacs, the ditty conspiracy theories, the prof for agreements,
39:31
Speaker 1: the missing hotel receipts, the cross examinations.
39:33
Speaker 3: It's easy to get lost in all that it is.
39:36
Speaker 1: But beneath all that procedural noise, there is a cousin
39:39
Speaker 1: who danced in the center of a basement at a
39:41
Speaker 1: ninth birthday party. This trial is not just about an
39:43
Speaker 1: ambitious prosecutor finally closing the most famous cold case file
39:46
Speaker 1: in America. It is about a family that has been
39:49
Speaker 1: holding their breath in the state of suspended grief for
39:52
Speaker 1: nearly thirty years, waiting for the system to afford them
39:55
Speaker 1: a moment of closure.
39:56
Speaker 3: It forces the entire legal spectacle out of the abstract
39:59
Speaker 3: and firm only back into the realm of human consequence.
40:02
Speaker 1: So let's synthesize this sprawling, multi decade journey. We started
40:07
Speaker 1: in the suffocating heat of a nineteen ninety eight federal
40:10
Speaker 1: drug bust, where a desperate man engineered a brilliant smokescreen
40:13
Speaker 1: narrative about corrupt police officers. To save his own life,
40:17
Speaker 1: we transitioned into a shocking, entirely unprompted admission in a
40:21
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight interrogation room. He did the other one.
40:25
Speaker 3: Then we watched the defense tear it apart.
40:27
Speaker 2: Right.
40:27
Speaker 1: We watched the defense attorney masterfully weaponize the passage of
40:31
Speaker 1: time and the jurisdictional failures of federal task forces to
40:34
Speaker 1: systematically dismantle the government's authority. Yeah, and we ended in
40:38
Speaker 1: the gallery of a Las Vegas courtroom, sitting beside a
40:40
Speaker 1: grieving family seeking peace. Three decades later, the jury is
40:44
Speaker 1: now sequestered, tasked with an almost impossible burden, weighing the
40:49
Speaker 1: chaotic reality of unverified police paperwork against the heavy psychological
40:53
Speaker 1: gravity of a man placing a motor weapon into the
40:55
Speaker 1: hands of his own beloved nephew.
40:57
Speaker 3: And we are not here to take a side on
40:59
Speaker 3: Davis's ultimate guild innocence, No.
41:01
Speaker 1: Of course not. But the stakes of how twelve people
41:04
Speaker 1: interpret this labyrinth of changing stories could not possibly be higher.
41:08
Speaker 3: It is arguably one of the most phenomenal, high stakes
41:11
Speaker 3: legal and psychological puzzles currently unfolding in the American justice system.
41:15
Speaker 1: And that leaves us with one final, deeply provocative thought
41:19
Speaker 1: for you to carry with you.
41:20
Speaker 3: Okay, let's hear it.
41:21
Speaker 1: If a globally infamous, heavily scrutinized case from nineteen ninety
41:25
Speaker 1: six can be entirely resurrected from the ashes by a
41:28
Speaker 1: suspect's casual, accidental slip up in a fluorescent lit interrogation
41:33
Speaker 1: room twelve years later, how many other massive historical mysteries
41:38
Speaker 1: are sitting dormant in federal filing cabinets right now?
41:41
Speaker 3: Oh wow, that's a thought.
41:43
Speaker 1: Right, Like how many cold cases are just waiting for
41:46
Speaker 1: a single person sitting under the buzzing lights of a
41:48
Speaker 1: task force interview to casually say we did the other one.
41:51
Speaker 1: Does the sheer passage of thirty years allow the dust
41:54
Speaker 1: to settle and make the truth clearer? Or does it
41:56
Speaker 1: simply provide the defense with thirty years of missing paperwork
41:59
Speaker 1: to build reasonable doubt.
42:01
Speaker 3: The interrogation room really remains the most unpredictable environment on Earth.
42:06
Speaker 3: The truth has a very strange way of escaping when
42:09
Speaker 3: you least expect it.
42:10
Speaker 1: It absolutely does. Thank you for joining us on this
42:12
Speaker 1: deep dive into the source material we will see you
42:15
Speaker 1: next time.