Jury Begins Deliberations in Trial Over Tupac Shakur’s Murder

The jury began weighing the evidence in the long-running case over Tupac Shakur’s killing, nearly three decades after the rapper was shot in Las Vegas. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, is the only person charged in the murder.

Prosecutors say Davis ordered the killing after his nephew was beaten by members of Shakur’s entourage at a Las Vegas casino on Sept. 7, 1996. Shakur, who was 25, was riding in a BMW when a white Cadillac stopped beside the car at a red light. A gunman in the Cadillac’s back seat then opened fire, prosecutors said.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Binu Palal said Davis could not accept the confrontation within gang culture. Prosecutors also allege that Davis handed the weapon to the shooter.

The investigation stalled for decades because of a lack of evidence. It resumed after Davis published a memoir in 2019 that placed him in the front seat of the white Cadillac that night. Davis now rejects those admissions and has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Michael Sanft, described the memoir statements as fiction and lies intended to promote the book.

Shakur’s death remains one of the most prominent unsolved killings in the United States to reach trial. A conviction could bring Davis life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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In gang culture, Duane Davis could not let that happen.