A Las Vegas jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of murder for orchestrating the killing of Tupac Shakur, concluding one of the country’s most notorious unsolved cases nearly three decades after the crime. Jurors deliberated for three hours before convicting Davis, a former Los Angeles gang leader, of facilitating the drive-by shooting that killed the 25-year-old rapper on September 7, 1996.
Prosecutors argued Davis ordered the killing in revenge after Shakur’s entourage beat up Davis’s nephew earlier that evening. They presented 24 witnesses and more than eight hours of recordings, primarily featuring Davis himself describing his role in the crime. Evidence included statements from a 2019 memoir and podcast interviews in which Davis candidly discussed his involvement.
Davis’s defense team argued his public statements were fictional, designed to boost his notoriety and book sales. The defense called only three police investigators to testify. Davis, 63, faces a potential sentence of life in prison without parole; sentencing will be determined at a later date.
Shakur’s death occurred amid the East Coast–West Coast hip-hop feud. The Notorious B.I.G. was killed in a similar drive-by shooting months later in March 1997. Both cases remained unsolved until Davis was indicted in September 2023.
Source: Billboard
