Nearly 30 years to the day after legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was shot while stopped at a red light in Nevada, the man believed to have orchestrated his killing could be found guilty. Closing arguments began Monday in the trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis.
Davis is charged with murder after saying for decades that Shakur’s deadly drive-by shooting was his idea. Prosecutors’ case hinges on those multiple confessions, but the defense claims Davis lied. After closing arguments, a jury will decide who they believe is telling the truth.
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The trial
Over the course of the trial, which began Aug. 10, a panel of 12 jurors and four alternates heard 24 witnesses for the prosecution and three defense witnesses. The trial was expected to take longer, with prosecutors originally planning to call 35 to 45 witnesses, according to The Associated Press.
“On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur, publicly on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis’s nephew,” Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said during opening statements. “Duane Davis knew that, in his world, that required a response, and over the years, in private interviews, in public statements, and even in private calls, Duane Davis has repeatedly told us over and over again about the anger he felt — and his own role in the revenge drive-by shooting of Tupac, and now nearly 30 years later, we’re going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable.”
Davis’ defense simply called their clients’ confessions, “B——-.” His lawyer, Michael Sanft, described the investigation into Shakur’s murder as “biased” and “sloppy” and said that after nearly 30 years with no one held accountable in the shooting, police targeted a man they knew was prone to embellishment.
Prosecutors say that they believe either Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, or another man who was in the back seat of the car that night fired the weapon that killed Shakur. But they say it was Davis who orchestrated the deadly shooting and provided the gun.
During the trial, police and former gang members testified that the shooting came amid a gang war between the Crips and Bloods gangs in South Los Angeles. They say Shakur’s murder escalated that war.
Police officers and detectives who were witnesses for the prosecution said Death Row Records impresario Marion “Suge” Knight was connected with the Mob Piru Bloods from Compton. They said as the headline artist for Knight’s “Death Row Records,” Shakur was connected to the Bloods through Knight,
Witnesses said Bad Boy Records, run by Knight’s nemesis Sean “Diddy” Combs, had connections to the rival Crips gang. They said Davis was a leader of the South Side Crips, also based in Compton.
In separate interviews and his 2019 memoir, Davis told investigators that Combs had offered a bounty on Knight and Shakur.
“Them jumping on my nephew gave us the ultimate green light to do something to their a****,” Davis said in his memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” which Palal read to the jury.
Combs has long denied any involvement.
Using Davis’ own words against him
Prosecutors quoted Davis when making their case, saying Davis admitted he spotted Shakur and Knight driving in Las Vegas the night of the shooting and “hooked a U-turn.”
“We just got lucky,” Davis told investigators. “We happened to bump into ’em.”
Davis said he handed the gun to his nephew in the back seat and seconds later the firing began.
“I seen a bullet, like, going in Suge’s head,” Davis said. “I see the boy [Shakur] jump up and down, trying to get in the back seat.”
Davis claimed they then abandoned the Cadillac they’d been driving at the time and left the gun “on the tire.”
Sanft argued that Davis has lied about his role in Shakur’s murder to make money off his memoir. He claimed there’s no proof that David was in Las Vegas when the shooting happened, let alone in the car with the shooter.
“Ask yourself this: what facts do they have after 30 years?” Sanft said in court. “There are no facts to point to Keffe [Davis]. Not one.”
Knight is the only eyewitness to Shakur’s shooting who is still alive. He has been and still is unwilling to cooperate with the investigation and the case against Davis.
The jurors
The jury of 12 and four alternates is composed of six men and 10 women. ABC News reports that some of the jurors were either toddlers or hadn’t even been born when Shakur was killed, while others recalled 1990s-era hip-hop well but said they could set that aside
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