A jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, finally bringing a measure of resolution to a case that had gripped hip-hop fans and lingered in the public imagination for decades.
Davis’ son covered his face with one hand. “Tell him you hear him. Find him guilty. Defence attorney Michael Sanft asked jurors if there was any evidence that Davis had ever called the shots before or after the shooting.
The 63-year-old Davis was convicted on Monday (August 31, 2026) of a single count of murder with a deadly weapon and could be sentenced to life in prison. The jury deliberated for less than 3 hours after a weekslong trial in Las Vegas. The panel of 16 jurors, four of whom are alternates, heard testimony from 24 prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses over nine days.
The prosecution said the state would dismiss a gang enhancement charge due to witness logistics.
After the verdict was read, Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, cried and hugged the prosecutors. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors in closing arguments earlier on Monday (August 31, 2026) that Davis acquired a gun and “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after the men had beat up Davis’ nephew earlier that night. “He is responsible of the murder of Tupac Shakur,” Mr. Palal said. Prosecutors said that while his story had changed over the years, Davis repeatedly placed himself inside a white Cadillac from which the shots were fired. And they said that while he did not pull the trigger, evidence showed he’d called for the gunfire as a powerful gang leader the younger men in the car, including his nephew, were going to listen to.
The shooting death of Bad Boy’s The Notorious B.I.G. six months after Shakur came up many times during the trial, with law enforcement witnesses saying Davis was briefly a suspect in that killing before being discounted. That case, which has also been an obsession of hip-hop fans, remains unsolved.
The decades-old case has drawn the attention of hip-hop fans and crime experts alike
Shakur, who was considered one of the most influential rappers of all time, was in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and stopped at a red light when a white Cadillac pulled up beside him, and shots were fired. The trial brought to a head a decades-old case that for years has drawn the attention of hip-hop fans and true crime experts alike. He died six days later from his wounds. Mr. Knight was also wounded but survived. Davis was the only person still alive among the four men prosecutors say were in the Cadillac. Mr. Sanft, Davis’ attorney, argued there was no physical evidence connecting his client to the shooting. Throughout the trial, Mr. Sanft poked holes in prosecutors’ narrative. In a rebuttal argument, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo pointed to a scrapbook Davis kept containing articles about Shakur. Mr. prosecutors argued the central account did not Although the book contains a disclaimer saying some facts were changed. Mr. Sanft also turned to his client’s memoir during his closing argument.
Witnesses described the hostile rivalry between the Los Angeles gang sects Mob Piru, and Davis’ Southside Compton Crips leading up to Shakur’s death, and how the gangs became affiliated with Knight’s Death Row Records and Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records. He said the book Davis co-authored and the public statements he made were dramatised bravado designed to make money, not to tell the truth. He said investigators did not back up the claims made by his client, and he repeatedly pointed out a lack of physical evidence, such as phone records, that showed Davis was the shot caller. “They have nothing in this case that says that man was here in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996,” Mr. Sanft said during his closing argument. “This guy’s scrapbooking his murder, for God’s sake,” Mr. DiGiacomo told jurors. Palal held up Davis’ 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and played an interview in which Davis encouraged people to buy it to get the “real truth. he said the N-word aloud, prompting people watching in an overflow courtroom to recoil and shake their heads While reading an excerpt. In multiple interviews, Davis said he handed the gun to the back seat, but in others as well as in his book, Davis wouldn’t say who pulled the trigger. Gang and record label rivalries provide the backdrop While insisting Davis’ words alone were enough to convict him, prosecutors said a gang rivalry helped explain why the shooting happened.
For years, nobody had been charged in the rapper’s death until Davis began making public statements, saying he was in the Cadillac and gave the gun to others in the backseat, calling the shooting retaliation for the earlier beating of his nephew.
