Duane "Keffe D" Davis Guilty of Tupac Shakur's Murder

The Verdict

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, was found guilty on Monday by a Las Vegas jury of the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was shot near the Las Vegas Strip on 7 September 1996.

The jury foreperson announced the verdict as "count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon," according to eNCA. The panel deliberated for just under three hours after a two-week trial.

Davis, dressed in a black suit, stood impassively as the verdict was read and said he would appeal, the BBC reported. eNCA reports he addressed Judge Carli Kierny to state that intention and that he faces possible life in prison without parole.

Shakur's relatives held hands in the courtroom. CNN reported that the rapper's sister, Sekyiwa "Set" Shakur, cried quietly; the BBC said his sister embraced a prosecutor after the verdict.

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The Prosecution Case

Prosecutors said Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang in Los Angeles, did not fire the shots himself but ordered the killing and supplied the gun. The BBC reported that the weapon was used by his nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson.

The motive, prosecutors said, was revenge. Anderson had been beaten by members of Shakur's entourage in the lobby of the MGM Grand hotel earlier that night, hours before the shooting.

"Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand," prosecutor Binu Palal said in closing arguments, as quoted by eNCA. "So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr Shakur."

The Guardian reported that Clark County district attorney Marc DiGiacomo and chief deputy district attorney Palal called 25 witnesses, some ordered to appear because they were reluctant to testify. Prosecutors played eight hours of recordings drawn from four separate occasions on which Davis described the night in his own words.

The Memoir and the Defence

The case rested heavily on Davis's own repeated accounts, including a secret 2008 police interview conducted in connection with the death of rapper Christopher Wallace, known as the Notorious B.I.G., and his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend.

The BBC reported that the book and media interviews voided a protective agreement Davis had with authorities that had blocked charges, and the court ruled the police interview could be used against him.

Defence attorney Michael Sanft argued that Davis's account in the memoir was "fiction" and that his statements were the embellished claims of a man hoping to benefit from public interest in the case. The defence also pointed to missing investigative records and a lack of direct evidence.

The 1996 Shooting

Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight. About two hours after the casino confrontation, a white Cadillac pulled alongside the BMW in which he was riding in the front passenger seat and a gunman opened fire.

He was shot four times and died six days later, at 25. The BMW's driver, Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight, was wounded.

Davis is the only person ever charged in the killing and, according to eNCA, the only person who was in the Cadillac that night who is still alive. The case had remained unsolved for nearly 30 years, with Las Vegas police criticised for a bungled investigation.