Jury Finds Duane “Keffe D” Guilty Over Tupac Shakur’s Murder In 1996

Jurors took less than three hours to reach the verdict in a case that remained unsolved for nearly three decades.

Shakur was shot in a drive-by attack on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas and died in hospital six days later at the age of 25.

The award-winning rapper, actor and activist sold more than 75 million records worldwide, with many of his albums and songs released posthumously.

Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang, is the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur’s killing.

During closing arguments, Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis obtained a gun and “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.

According to prosecutors, the attack followed a fight earlier that night in which Shakur, Knight and their associates allegedly assaulted Davis’ nephew.

Palal argued that although Davis’ accounts of the killing changed over the years, he consistently placed himself inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

Davis is the only surviving member of the four men prosecutors say were inside the Cadillac during the shooting. The man prosecutors said initially supplied the gun to Davis is also dead.

Police had long suspected Davis of involvement in the murder but lacked sufficient evidence to charge him.

The case gained momentum after Davis publicly discussed his alleged role in media interviews and a memoir. Prosecutors also relied on recordings of secret meetings between Davis and investigators.

Davis, who pleaded not guilty to the single murder charge, told the judge he planned to appeal the conviction.

Davis will face a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing on October 13. He told the judge “he plans to appeal this matter”.

Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang in Los Angeles, was accused of ordering the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur on September 7, 1996. Prosecutors said he was enraged because members of Shakur’s entourage had beaten his nephew at a Las Vegas casino hours earlier.

“Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand,” prosecutor Binu Palal said during closing arguments. “So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together and went hunting for Mr Shakur.”

Shakur, who was in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight, was shot about two hours after the casino confrontation by a gunman in a white Cadillac that pulled up at a red light alongside the BMW in which the rapper was riding in the front passenger seat.

According to prosecutors, Davis handed the gun to someone sitting in the back seat of the Cadillac and ordered that person to shoot Shakur, who died six days later.

Davis is the only person who was in the Cadillac that evening who is still alive.

The driver of the BMW, Death Row Records cofounder Marion “Suge” Knight, was wounded.

The killing of Shakur, also known as 2Pac, has been one of the US’s most notorious cold cases, prompting endless debate among music fans over who did it and why.

The investigation into Shakur’s murder sputtered for decades because of a lack of evidence, but the case was revived when Davis’s memoirs were published in 2019. Davis has repeatedly boasted over the years of involvement in Shakur’s murder, in interviews with law enforcement and media and ultimately in his autobiography, Compton Street Legend.

He has since backtracked and pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

Palal, the prosecutor, played clips from Davis’s various alleged confessions as part of his closing arguments.

Michael Sanft, Davis’s defence attorney, characterised his client’s confessions as fiction and lies partly designed to promote his book.

“You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact,” Sanft told the jury. “But the state wants you to believe that this is somehow a confession, that he was there and present at the time of the shooting.”

Sanft said there was no evidence implicating Davis in Shakur’s murder other than his own statements.

In the run-up to the trial, Davis’s lawyers tried in vain to keep the book from being introduced as evidence, along with remarks he made in an interview with police in 2008.

Shakur, who was 25 when he was killed, was a key figure in a hip-hop rivalry pitting US East Coast rappers against West Coast artists.

Known for hits including “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me”, Shakur – the son of a Black Panther – was raised in Harlem and Baltimore, but became the epitome of California hip-hop when he signed with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.