James “Mob James” McDonald shared why he refused to identify anyone while on the stand during Tupac Shakur’s murder trial.
A former associate of Suge Knight, McDonald told PEOPLE that he didn’t want to put Duane “Keefe D: Davis, another Black man in prison.
“I didn’t want to come. And I believe in God, I’m raising my kids, I’m going to church. I got two granddaughters and a grandson that know the difference between right and wrong. I did it for them; I didn’t want to come,” he says.
“But I came because they forced me to. They told me I would go to jail if I didn’t come. But my whole thing today… I didn’t want to send a Black man to prison because I have been incarcerated myself. The penitentiary didn’t help me do nothing.”
A former member of the Mob Piru Bloods, McDonald has no love lost for Davis, who’s on trial for Tupac’s murder.
“I don’t like Keffe D, but I don’t wish that on him. I don’t have to solve no case. The proof is in the pudding. He’s talking about being involved in committing a murder that he didn’t pay for yet. But I’m not going to be the one to send him to prison.”
“This helped me,” McDonald continued, pointing to his head. “I’m a survivor, and I lived the worst of the worst. And I woke up with a gun; I went to sleep with a gun. But I paid the time. I just didn’t want to do the same for Keffe D.”
While on the stand, McDonald frustrated Michael Sanft, Davis’ defense attorney, with his testimony.
“Are you sure you want me to answer that?” McDonald replied in court. “I don’t want to send him to prison, even though we don’t like each other. You’re asking me questions that can hurt him. … You’re asking something that’s gonna hurt this dude.”
Sanft then asked McDonald if he knew anyone who was at the shooting.
“I know everybody that was there,” McDonald said in court.
When Sanft asked him to identify them, McDonald “appeared stunned and turned toward Davis.”
“Talk to your lawyer, man. This dude is tripping. I’m not gonna explain that. I can’t answer that,” McDonald said. “I’m not gonna send him to prison.”