Mopreme Shakur appeared on the BBC on August 16 to share his thoughts on his stepbrother’s murder trial, nearly 30 years after Tupac’s fatal shooting in Las Vegas.

Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in connection with Tupac’s drive-by shooting death in September 1996.

‘The justice I want, I will never get. I want my brother back. Period dot. I want my little brother back,’ he said.

‘Pac didn’t get a trial, he just got a death sentence. The amount of pain, distress, heartache that the family has gone through, and Pac’s fans have gone through, is unmatched,’ he continued.

Shakur said that the family were ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the outcome of the trial.

Jurors took notes during opening statements, and there was no visible reaction from the gallery.

A few people were heard chuckling as audio of Davis imitating women screaming at Tupac was played.

Davis was noticeably still through the first few minutes of the defense’s opening statement, and only moved to pour himself a cup of water.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft began his opening statement by questioning the evidence prosecutors had to link Davis to Tupac’s murder.

‘It’s up to you to determine what the facts are,’ he said, challenging the investigative work that the three detectives did on the rapper’s case at the time.

Duane Davis’ lawyer Michael Sanft began his opening statements for the defense after the DA asked jurors to ‘finally hold Duane Davis accountable.’

Police interviewed Davis in 2008 in relation to Christopher Wallace ‘Biggie Smalls’ murder.

As investigators looked into allegations that the Los Angeles Police Department may have been involved in Wallace’s killing, Davis became known to them.

The LAPD put together a drug trafficking case to leverage more information about Wallace’s murder, as Davis was a successful ‘large-scale drug trafficker’ at the time, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said.

Davis was seen shaking his head in court in reaction to Palal’s statements.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal named Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in his opening statement for the prosecution, linking the disgraced mogul to Duane Davis in the 1990s.

Palal said that Davis acted as ‘unofficial security for Sean Combs and his artists when they came out west, in order specifically to ensure there are no problems with Mob Piru and Death Row Records.’

Tupac was signed to Death Row Records at the time and was affiliated with the Mob Piru gang.

Combs was named on a list of 200 possible witnesses in the trial. He is currently serving a 50 month sentence at the Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution in New Jersey after being convicted of federal prostitution charges in 2025.

The DA played a surreptitious audio clip recorded by police of Duane Davis allegedly speaking about his search for Tupac Shakur on September 7, 1996.

Davis and his gang were said to comb the Las Vegas area after his nephew’s attack, but called it quits and decided to go to a night club after they were not able to locate him and his crew.

As they made their way to the club, Davis and his associates apparently spotted Shakur among a fleet of vehicles.

‘Tupac, he gave himself away,’ Davis said in the recording. ‘Otherwise, they woulda got away.’

Prosecutor Bilal alleges Davis and his crew made a U-Turn, followed Shakur’s vehicle, and handed a gun to Deandre Smith. When Smith did not shoot, his nephew Orlando Anderson began firing into the rapper’s car.

Davis was seen looking at who was seated in the courtroom gallery as court began for the day.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal began his opening statement by playing a video of Tupac’s associates kicking and beating Orlando Anderson, Duane ‘Keffe D’s’ nephew at the MGM Grand in September 1996.

They then showed a picture of Tupac and Suge Knight’s bullet-ridden vehicle and argued the retaliatory attack against them was orchestrated by Keffe D.

Lawyers explained the different gang camps between the Mob Pirus and South Side Compton Crips and how their rivalry came into play in the lead up to Tupac’s death.

The state argues that the rapper’s murder was an ‘act of revenge.’

‘You will learn when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters were armed and ready to execute their revenge,’ he said.

Mopreme arrived at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas on Monday morning dressed in a black New York Giants shirt.

He sat in the back row of an overflow room as names were drawn for who will get to watch the trial in person.

The seating lottery is divided into three groups between family, members of the media and general public.

Those who are not seated in the courtroom will watch a livestream of the trial in a separate room in the building.

Prosecutors believe that Davis organized Tupac Shakur’s shooting in retaliation to an attack on Davis’ nephew Orlando Anderson at the MGM Grand Las Vegas in September 1996.

Lawyers argue that the pair’s rival gang affiliations were foundational in the motive of Shakur’s killing, as Davis was affiliated with the South Side Compton Crips and Shakur was affiliated with the Mob Piru gang.

Davis wrote about the events leading up to Shakur’s death in his 2019 memoir ‘Compton Street Legend,’ detailing his life as a gang member, who was in his circle, and who was present the night that Shakur was shot.

As a result of his book, as well as a series of BET docuseries episodes that aired in 2017 in which Davis discussed the incident in detail, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reopened the case.

Davis was indicted in 2023 on one count of murder with a deadly weapon in the rapper’s death, but prosecutors do not claim that he fired the fatal shots.