Nationwide — Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been found guilty in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, nearly 30 years after the hip-hop star was fatally shot in Las Vegas. A 12-person jury convicted Davis of murder with the use of a deadly weapon on Monday, Aug. 31, after less than three hours of deliberation. He now faces up to life in prison, while the gang enhancement attached to the charge was dismissed.
Shakur was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, while riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight. The pair had left the MGM Grand in Las Vegas after watching a Mike Tyson fight when a white Cadillac pulled alongside their vehicle and opened fire. Shakur was struck several times and died from his injuries six days later, on Sept. 13, at age 25.
According to People, prosecutors argued that Davis helped plan the shooting as part of a long-running rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and members of the Bloods-affiliated Death Row circle. They said the attack came after Shakur and his associates confronted and assaulted Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand earlier that night. Casino surveillance footage shown during the trial captured a group of people beating and kicking someone on the floor during the confrontation.
Davis was not accused of being the gunman. Prosecutors instead said he organized the attack and supplied the firearm used to kill Shakur. Anderson, who was associated with the South Side Compton Crips, was among the four people inside the white Cadillac during the shooting, according to prosecutors. He was later killed in an unrelated shooting in Compton in May 1998 at age 23.
The case remained unsolved for decades, but Davis’ own public statements eventually helped bring new attention to it. His 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and previous interviews included accounts of the shooting. Prosecutors used those statements during the trial. Davis’ attorney, Michael Sanft, disputed their reliability and argued that his client had a reputation for exaggerating stories. Davis pleaded not guilty in November 2023 after his arrest two months earlier.
The conviction comes just days before the 30th anniversary of Shakur’s shooting. Davis, now 63, remains in custody without bail and has already told the judge he plans to appeal. His arrest in September 2023 marked the first major development in the investigation in years and led to the long-awaited prosecution of a suspect in one of hip-hop’s most enduring murder cases.