A Las Vegas jury found 63-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing on Monday, concluding a two-week trial. Sentencing will occur at a later date, with Davis facing a potential life sentence.
Prosecutors from the Clark County district attorney’s office portrayed Davis as a gang leader and “shot caller” who orchestrated the murder. Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that “(Davis) acquired firearms, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr. Shakur.” According to prosecutors, Davis assembled at least three others and tracked down Shakur and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight following an altercation at the MGM Grand Hotel lobby after a Mike Tyson boxing match, where Knight and Shakur had beaten Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.
Davis’s defense attorney, Michael Sanft, argued that statements in Davis’s 2019 memoir—in which Davis admitted to being in the vehicle and handing a gun to someone in the backseat—were fabrications by a ghostwriter seeking profit from the infamous shooting. Sanft contended the state could not prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, and died six days later on September 13. The identity of the shooter has not been publicly disclosed by Davis. Under Nevada law, a person who arranges a killing can be charged as the perpetrator. Clark County prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment against Davis in 2023, charging him with murder with a deadly weapon, after his 2019 memoir and subsequent media appearances discussing the shooting provided sufficient evidence to proceed.
Source: Consequence, Billboard
