Michael Sanft defended the man convicted in Tupac Shakur’s murder and planned his appeal, and now the Las Vegas lawyer has been found dead at 55

Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas defense attorney who represented Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder trial, was found dead at his home at 55, and the prosecutor who faced him in court said he “lost a friend.” The Clark County coroner’s office has not released a cause of death, though authorities said the death does not appear suspicious, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“Michael Sanft was one of the premier defense attorneys in Las Vegas, and Las Vegas lost a good lawyer and more importantly to me, I lost a friend,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said. DiGiacomo was part of the team that prosecuted Davis.

A jury found Davis guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon after less than three hours of deliberation. Prosecutors argued that Davis did not fire the shots in the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Shakur in Las Vegas but was the mastermind behind the killing.

Davis now needs a new lawyer for his appeal

Davis was sentenced in October to 40 years to life in prison, and Sanft had said he planned to appeal the verdict, according to AZFamily. With Sanft’s death, Davis will need new legal representation for that appeal. Shakur’s stepbrother, Maurice, has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Davis and 99 unnamed co-conspirators.

Sanft took the case pro bono and said he believed his client was innocent, according to FOX5 Las Vegas. During the case, he pushed back on the state’s evidence, particularly how prosecutors handled recordings that contained admissions from Davis.

“Here’s the thing at the end of the day, when the state of Nevada has to rely on that kind of information to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt, they’ve got a huge problem,” Sanft said. “And I’ve seen the state before, they’ll listen to the phone calls, but it’s sort of like, ‘Nah, we don’t care. We don’t need them.’”

Sanft also openly disagreed with some of his client’s choices outside the courtroom, including the book Davis wrote and the interviews he gave about the killing. “Do I agree with him writing the book and doing all these interviews? No,” Sanft said.

He said he remained fully committed to the defense despite those disagreements. “Keffe knows that I’m in his corner. I have a personal pride issue here because I want to win this case too and I want to do the best job for Keffe that I can,” Sanft said.