Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, former gang leader Duane Davis has been found guilty of his murder. The post Justice for Tupac Shakur: Former gang leader guilty of rapper’s murder after 30 years appeared first on Nehanda Radio .
A Las Vegas jury has found former South Side Compton Crips leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder over the 1996 killing of rap superstar Tupac Shakur.
Davis, 63, was convicted on Monday, 31 August, of murder with the use of a deadly weapon after jurors deliberated for less than three hours. He is the first person convicted in connection with the drive-by shooting, which remained unsolved for almost 30 years.
Although prosecutors did not accuse Davis of firing the fatal shots, they argued that he organised the group behind the attack, obtained the gun and helped carry out the killing.
Under Nevada law, a person can be convicted of murder for aiding or orchestrating an offence even if they were not the gunman.
The prosecution relied heavily on statements Davis made over several years to investigators, filmmakers and journalists, as well as claims contained in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.
In those accounts, Davis repeatedly placed himself inside the white Cadillac that pulled alongside the car carrying Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight on 7 September 1996.
Prosecutors said Davis obtained a firearm and passed it towards the back seat before shots were fired into Shakur’s vehicle.
His defence argued that the accounts were fabricated or exaggerated to attract attention and generate income. Davis had pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution maintained that the shooting was retaliation for an altercation at the MGM Grand earlier that evening. Shakur and members of his entourage were seen attacking Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, after a Mike Tyson boxing match.
Anderson, who died in an unrelated gang shooting in 1998, was never charged over Shakur’s death. Prosecutors did not identify the person who fired the fatal shots during Davis’s trial.
Shakur was 25 when he was shot while riding in a BMW driven by Knight near the Las Vegas Strip. He died from his injuries six days later, on 13 September 1996.
The killing became one of the most closely followed unsolved cases in music history and generated decades of speculation about who was responsible.
Davis was arrested in September 2023 after investigators searched a home connected to his wife in Henderson, Nevada. He was the only person ever charged in the case.
He was ordered to remain in custody without bail following the verdict and could receive a life sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for 13 October, while his defence has indicated that he intends to appeal.
Follow the story
