Ex-Los Angeles gang leader found guilty of Tupac Shakur’s murder

Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was shot in Las Vegas, a jury convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis of the rapper’s murder after only a few hours of deliberation.

The jury found Davis guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. Davis, 63, addressed Judge Carli Kierny after the verdict and said he intended to appeal. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison without parole, with sentencing set for October 13.

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Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.

Prosecutors said the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips helped organize the September 7, 1996 attack after his nephew was beaten by members of Shakur’s entourage at a Las Vegas casino. “Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand,” prosecutor Binu Palal said in closing arguments. “So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr Shakur.”

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Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand.

Shakur had been in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight when a gunman in a white Cadillac pulled alongside the BMW carrying the rapper in the front passenger seat. Prosecutors said Davis handed a gun to a person in the Cadillac’s back seat and ordered that person to shoot. Shakur died six days later. Marion “Suge” Knight, the Death Row Records co-founder driving the BMW, was wounded.

Davis is the only person from the Cadillac who remains alive and the only person charged in connection with the shooting. The case remained unresolved for years, then gained new momentum after Davis’s 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” in which he had described his involvement before later backtracking and pleading not guilty.

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So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr Shakur.