Michael Sanft, lawyer for man convicted of Tupac Shakur’s murder, dies at 55

By Sydney Bishop, Danya Gainor, Andy Rose, CNN

(CNN) — Michael Sanft, the lawyer who defended Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder trial in August, has died, according to the coroner’s office in Clark County, Nevada. He was 55.

Sanft’s cause of death is pending, the coroner’s office said. No official date was given for his death; CNN affiliate KVVU, citing sources, said Sanft was found dead in his home Friday morning.

As Davis’ murder trial played out in August, Sanft became a fixture on TV screens and social media feeds across the country. He represented the only person ever charged in the shocking murder of Shakur, who was 25 and at the height of his career when he was killed.

One of the prosecutors in the high-profile trial, Binu Palal, said Monday he was saddened by the loss of Sanft, whom he called a friend for many years.

“Mike was an exceptionally talented trial attorney and a fierce advocate for his clients,” Palal said in a statement to CNN. “We stood on opposite sides of a highly publicized case, but our professional differences never diminished our friendship or the respect we had for one another.”

Sanft, who was also the lead trial attorney for SOS Injury Lawyers, was willing to take Davis’ case for free, as the drug money that once funded Davis’ lifestyle had long since dried up.

“The idea of money with the Davis family has never been an issue for me, nor has this money come from any other source,” Sanft told podcaster Lena Nozizwe in July. “Because there isn’t any.”

Davis was ultimately found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the decades-old killing of the rap mogul on the Las Vegas Strip.

Sanft practiced law for decades, trying more than 150 cases to jury verdict, and had “partnered with lawyers who previously defended the very companies” he sued, his firm wrote.

Sanft was “one of the most respected and effective trial attorneys in America,” according to the lawyer group.

His biography with the firm says he grew up on the Pacific island nation of Tonga in a home with no electricity, sharing a water faucet with three other houses. He moved to San Diego at the age of 12.

After completing a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sanft enrolled at Brigham Young University’s Hawaii campus, where he found “a bridge to his native culture” as a dancer at the Polynesian Cultural Center, his biography reads.

Speaking about his faith and the Shakur case with Nozizwe, Sanft said, “In this case, when you have a person’s life on the line, there’s always a prayer in your heart that you will be guided in the way that you should — to do your best as a defense attorney for your client.”

“At the end of the day, we still rely on a higher power, whether it’s God or whatever it is that people look to for guidance and for support and for strength, and at the end of the day, I’m there, too,” he said.

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