TupacThe trial into the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur has come to an end, with a jury finding Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder on Monday (31 August).
The 63-year-old Davis was charged with a single count of murder using a deadly weapon in Clark County, Nevada, following a trial that began in mid-August. He pleaded not guilty.
ABC reports that Davis was accused of being the ringleader of a group planning to kill Shakur, who was 25 years old at the time of his murder. The jury reportedly reached a guilty verdict after less than three hours of deliberation.
Tupac was shot four times on the night of 7 September 1996, during a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. He died from his wounds six days later while he was in the hospital.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips. Throughout the trial, the prosecution argued that he ordered the murder of the rapper and that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.
CNN notes that Davis could face life in prison without the possibility of parole after the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. Judge Carli Kierny will deliver his sentence on Tuesday, 13 October.
Due to a lack of evidence, Tupac’s murder was a cold case for decades. However, it was revived after Davis penned a memoir, Compton Street Legend, in 2019. In that book, he wrote that he was in the Cadillac with Shakur’s killer when it happened, and provided the gun used. He didn’t mention who fired the gun.
In September 2023, Davis was charged over Tupac’s murder. He was initially indicted on one count of murder with use of a deadly weapon (as noted by The Associated Press, accomplices to a murder can be charged for the crime itself), as well as intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang.
Davis is the only person ever to have been charged in connection with the rapper’s untimely passing following decades of investigations.
In a 2025 interview with ABC News, Davis explained why he’d pled not guilty, claiming that he was innocent.
He said, “I’m innocent. I ain’t killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody. They don’t have no evidence against me. They can’t even put me in Las Vegas.”
Davis also claimed that his co-author inflated his stories for the memoir, saying, “I just gave him details of my life, and he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
