A former gang leader, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. The 63-year-old’s conviction is the first in a cold case that has fascinated hip-hop fans for nearly three decades.
A jury found Davis guilty in September of one count of murder with a deadly weapon over the drive-by shooting in Las Vegas on 7 September 1996. Davis has said he will appeal the verdict.
Prosecutors say Davis ordered the shooting
Prosecutors did not claim Davis pulled the trigger himself. They argued instead that he was the ringleader of the group that carried out the killing, and that he supplied the gun his nephew, Orlando Anderson, used to open fire.
Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang, also admitted in his memoir that he had provided the weapon. His defence team tried to persuade jurors that his statements were fiction, bravado and exaggeration meant to sell books and make money.
Davis’s own words became the key evidence
The central evidence, as presented at trial, was Davis’s own repeated and public acknowledgement that he had been inside the white Cadillac from which the deadly shots were fired. He had said the same thing openly on several occasions.
Davis had earlier told authorities about his role in Shakur’s death during a secret 2008 police interview. That session was linked to the death of fellow rapper Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace and who was shot and killed only months after Shakur. In exchange, Davis was shielded from criminal prosecution.
His 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, brought him publicity and media interviews, and he went further into his role in them. Those public accounts voided the protective agreement that had blocked any criminal charges, and a judge then allowed the police interview to be used in the murder trial against him.
A cold case that lasted three decades
Shakur was 25 years old and at the height of his career as one of rap’s most influential voices when he died. He has sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
For three decades, the investigation into his killing remained one of America’s most famous cold cases and gave rise to countless conspiracy theories. That changed with Davis’s conviction in September. Anderson died in an unrelated shooting in 1998, having denied any involvement in Shakur’s killing.
