Las Vegas, Nevada: Michael Sanft, Attorney for Keffe D in Tupac Murder Trial, Dies at 55

Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas defense attorney who represented Duane "Keffe D" Davis in the Tupac Shakur murder trial, was found dead in Las Vegas on Friday. He was 55. A spokesperson for the Clark County Office of the Coroner confirmed the death to USA TODAY on Friday, November 6. His cause of death is pending and no further details have been released, USA TODAY reported.

FOX5 Las Vegas first reported through sources that Sanft was reported dead on Thursday night. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that he was found at home on Friday morning, citing a close friend. A separate account of the confirmation said a police spokesperson described the death as not appearing suspicious. No report published on Friday connected the death to the Davis case.

The appeal he had just filed

Sanft's death comes one week after he filed the next step in the Davis case. Court records obtained by USA TODAY show he filed a notice of appeal on October 30. Davis, 63, was sentenced in October to 40 years to life in prison after a jury found him guilty in August of first degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, for facilitating the fatal 1996 shooting of Shakur in Las Vegas.

Davis is the first and only person to be charged in the case, which stayed unsolved for close to 30 years before his trial. Sanft represented him pro bono and served as lead counsel for the defense.

After the sentencing, Sanft told FOX5 that Davis had urged him not to dwell on the verdict. "He had reminded me this is phase one. Because I was upset with the verdict, I was very disappointed in the jury. Mr. Davis was the one who said, 'Don't worry about it, man, this is the first phase,' and I said, 'I understand, I hate to lose,'" Sanft told the station, in comments reported by USA TODAY.

A Las Vegas trial lawyer

At the time of his death, Sanft was the lead trial attorney at SOS Injury Lawyers in Las Vegas. His firm biography credits him with trying more than 150 cases to a jury verdict and describes decades of trial work in Nevada.

That background is part of why the Davis case drew so much attention to him. The Shakur killing was one of the best known unsolved murders in American music, and the trial in Las Vegas put a local defense lawyer at the center of national coverage for weeks, from the August verdict through the October sentencing.

What happens to the case now

No replacement attorney for Davis had been named in the reporting published on Friday, and no new briefing schedule was reported. The notice of appeal Sanft filed on October 30 is on file, so the appeal itself does not end with his death, but the lawyer who prepared it and argued the trial will not be the one who carries it forward.

USA TODAY said it had reached out to Sanft's law firm for comment. The coroner's office has released no cause or manner of death beyond confirming that he died, and police have released no further details.

Sanft was 55. The reports published on Friday did not list a funeral or memorial arrangement.