A Las Vegas jury convicted Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, of murder with a deadly weapon for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, delivering the first verdict in a case unsolved for nearly three decades. The panel deliberated under three hours after a nine-day trial, exposing Davis to a potential life sentence.
Prosecutors argued Davis, a former South Side Compton Crips leader, obtained a firearm and directed the drive-by shooting from a white Cadillac as retaliation for an earlier assault on his nephew by Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight. The state dismissed a gang enhancement charge citing witness logistics. Davis is the sole surviving occupant of the vehicle identified by prosecutors.
The conviction rests primarily on Davis's own public admissions in a 2019 memoir and media interviews, which placed him inside the Cadillac and described providing the weapon. Shakur's sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, embraced prosecutors after the verdict, while Davis's son covered his face. Davis pleaded not guilty and intends to appeal.
Defense counsel Michael Sanft contended the prosecution lacked physical evidence linking Davis to the scene, including phone records or forensic proof of his presence in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and characterized Davis's statements as fabricated bravado for profit.