Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was shot in Las Vegas, Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been convicted of first-degree murder in a case prosecutors built largely around Davis’ own accounts of the killing
Prosecutors did not need to prove that the 63-year-old Davis fired the gun. They argued he organized the attack, obtained the weapon and helped set the shooting in motion, making him responsible for the murder under Nevada law.
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A Las Vegas jury returned a guilty verdict Monday after less than three hours of deliberations following nine days of testimony. Davis did not take the stand.
Davis is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 13 and faces up to life in prison. He also told the court after the verdict that he intends to appeal, and the judge said that the process will come after sentencing.
What happened that night
Shakur was riding through Las Vegas with Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight on Sept. 7, 1996, when a white Cadillac came alongside their BMW and gunfire followed.
Knight survived his wounds. Shakur died six days later at age 25.
Prosecutors said the shooting was retaliation for violence earlier that evening at the MGM Grand. After a Mike Tyson fight, Shakur, Knight and others attacked Orlando Anderson, Davis’ nephew, during an ongoing gang dispute.
Davis’ own accounts become evidence
No one was charged in Shakur’s killing for decades, while Davis increasingly spoke publicly about his own role in what happened.
During a recorded police interview in 2008, he said he had been riding in the Cadillac and described a gun being passed toward the back seat before the shots were fired. He later discussed the case publicly and wrote about it in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.”
Prosecutors acknowledged that Davis’ accounts did not match in every detail but argued the one point remained consistent: He repeatedly placed himself inside the car used in the attack.
The defense says the story was fiction
Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued Davis had an incentive to invent the account when he first spoke with investigators because he was facing an unrelated narcotics case. The defense said Davis later kept telling the story because it brought him money and attention.
Sanft also highlighted differences among Davis’ accounts and pointed to details that conflicted with other trial testimony.
Jurors returned a guilty verdict, making Davis the first person convicted in Shakur’s killing nearly three decades after his death.
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