One-time Crips boss Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has been found guilty of plotting the drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur in 1996.
Davis, 63, was convicted on Monday of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
As the verdict was read in court on Monday, Sekyiwa ‘Set’ Shakur, the rapper’s sister, appeared to cry quietly, CNN reports.
Prosecutors argued Davis planned the strike after Shakur’s entourage attacked his nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson, a few hours earlier at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas following a Mike Tyson fight.
Davis then allegedly supplied the weapon and set in motion the shooting that killed the 25-year-old hip-hop icon, but did not pull the trigger.
The prosecution pointed to a 2008 agreement Davis reached with federal investigators who were looking into the death of Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls.
Davis was approached about the murder of Wallace, but instead talked about the Shakur shooting.
He had allegedly believed the deal, called a proffer, offered him immunity, but was not shielded from any future prosecution of state murder charges.
Prosecutors said Davis was able to describe details of Shakur’s murder only a witness could provide – including the positions of who was inside the car used in the drive-by shooting and previous gang fights leading up to Shakur’s death.
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis is pictured in court on Monday amid closing arguments in his murder trial
Tupac Shakur (pictured in 1996), was shot dead in a drive-by when he was aged 25
Shakur was shot dead inside a black BMW on the night of September 7, 1996
The final piece of the puzzle then came when Davis published his memoir Compton Street Legend in 2019.
He described in the book how he played a role in Shakur’s murder, which led to a renewed investigation into the 1996 killing.
In closing arguments on Monday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal described to jurors how Davis acquired a .40-caliber handgun and ‘went hunting’ for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion ‘Suge’ Knight.
Palal acknowledged Davis’s accounts of the killing evolved over the years, but argued those differences reflected his changing motivations and efforts to protect himself.
One critical detail, he said, remained consistent: Davis repeatedly placed himself inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired. ‘The core facts remain. The material facts remain,’ Palal said.
But Davis’s defense attorney Michael Sanft challenged jurors to identify evidence outside his client’s own statements that placed him in Las Vegas or inside the Cadillac on the night Shakur was shot.
He also noted there was an absence of surveillance footage, phone records and other evidence putting Davis there.
‘They have nothing in this case that says that man was here in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996,’ Sanft said, pointing toward Davis.
Instead, the attorney claimed his client fabricated the story in a 2008 interview with Los Angeles police and federal authorities to avoid a life sentence for drug dealing. He then later repeated parts of the fabricated stories to help sell his memoir.
‘You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact,’ he told the jury.
Duane Davis, center, and his attorney Michael Sanft are led back to a courtroom to hear his sentencing date after a jury found Davis guilty of first-degree murder
Mopreme Shakur is pictured leaving the courthouse in Las Vegas during a recess in the murder trial on Monday
The panel of 16 jurors heard testimony from 24 prosecution witnesses and three defense witnesses over nine days.
Shakur, 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. He died six days later from his wounds.
Knight was also wounded but survived.
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. Davis described the shooting as an act of retaliation after Knight and Shakur´s entourage beat up Davis´ nephew hours before the shooting.
Under Nevada law, someone who helps another person commit murder can be convicted of the crime.
Davis is the only person still alive among the four men prosecutors say were in the Cadillac. The man who prosecutors say originally gave the gun to Davis is also dead.
Alleged occupants of the white Cadillac are displayed during closing arguments
Among the damning evidence they heard was a recording of the 2008 federal task force interview in which Davis described the occupants of the white Cadillac that opened fire on Shakur’s BMW, the LA Times reports.
He told how they only noticed Shakur and Knight in the BMW because some women in a Chrysler Sebring were yelling at the rapper.
‘If it had been on my side, I was going to blast,’ Davis could be heard saying in the recording. He then went on to tell how he handed the gun to Deandrae ‘Big Dre’ Smith, who didn’t want to shoot, so Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson took the gun and fired.
Palal noted that the presence of the women in the Chrysler Sebring had never before been publicized.
Yet Sanft argued that a female witness never heard anyone yelling Tupac’s name as Davis described, and painted both Compton and LA police as dirty – especially former LAPD Detective Greg Kading, who conducted the 2008 interview with Davis and later wrote a book on the murders of Shakur and Biggie.
He also questioned why jurors have never heard from Kading or Knight, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in 2018.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu 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’
But Palal told jurors that if they believe Davis’ statements, they do not have to be independently corroborated with additional evidence.
Still, he pointed to the rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru, the fight with Anderson and testimony that members of Shakur´s circle identified Anderson and Davis as suspects the night of the shooting.
Witnesses had also testified to the heated gang rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru, which were associated with dueling record companies Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records.
‘Who fired is not the question,’ Palal said.
Prosecutors haven’t argued that Davis pulled the trigger, but instead that he was criminally responsible because he provided the gun and ordered the attack.
Palal also argued the shooting was premeditated, pointing to testimony and Davis´ accounts that the group searched for Shakur before spotting him on the road and making a U-turn. ‘It’s a plan, not an impulse,’ Palal said.
Davis’ defense attorney, Michael Sanft, challenged jurors to identify evidence outside his client’s own statements that placed him in Las Vegas or inside the Cadillac on the night Shakur was shot
Palal held up Davis’ memoir and played an interview in which Davis encouraged people to buy it to get the ‘real truth.’ Although the book contains a disclaimer saying some facts were changed, Palal argued names, hotels and other details changed while the central account did not.
‘For nearly 18 years, Duane Davis has told the police, television, books, YouTube interviews – anybody that will listen, he has told – he is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,’ Palal argued. ‘Tell him you hear him – find him guilty.’
Palal also rejected the defense’s contention that Davis fabricated his accounts to make money.
‘It is an entirely different proposition to be profiting from a murder,’ Palal said. ‘And that is what Mr Davis is doing.’
Sanft also turned to his client’s memoir during his closing argument. While reading an excerpt, he said the N-word aloud, prompting people watching in an overflow courtroom to recoil and shake their heads.
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.
In a rebuttal argument, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo pointed to a scrapbook Davis kept containing articles about Shakur.
‘This guy’s scrapbooking his murder, for God’s sake,’ DiGiacomo told jurors.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo speaks to the jury during rebuttal closing arguments
The prosecution’s witnesses included a gang expert who described Davis as the shot caller that younger gang members had to obey. Sanft asked jurors if there was any evidence that Davis had ever called the shots before or after the shooting.
During the trial, investigators said a Las Vegas hotel bill was found at Davis´ residence during a police search, but it wasn´t clear when it was dated – or where that evidence is currently located.
The case is nearly 30 years old, which has affected the kind of evidence presented in court. Prosecutors warned jurors that material collected in the ’90s is different from what law enforcement collects today, including hotel surveillance video from the night of the shooting.
Sentencing in Davis’s case is now scheduled for October 13.
But Davis has indicated he will appeal the verdict.
