Duane Keffe D Davis Convicted of First Degree Murder in Tupac Shakurs 1996 Killing Almost 30 Years Later

LAS VEGAS — A jury convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis of first-degree murder Monday in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, delivering the first conviction in a case that had remained unsolved for nearly three decades and closing the door on a crime that has haunted the hip-hop world since Shakur’s death at age 25.

Jurors deliberated for just under three hours before returning the verdict, following two weeks of testimony and closing arguments delivered Monday in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas. Davis, 63, is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s death, and prosecutors accused him of orchestrating the drive-by shooting that killed the rapper on Sept. 7, 1996, near the Las Vegas Strip.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors during closing arguments that Davis and his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, “went hunting” for Shakur after Anderson was involved in a physical altercation with Shakur and his entourage at the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson boxing match earlier that night. Palal argued that Davis led the plot in his capacity as a “shot caller” within the South Side Compton Crips, and that his statements about the shooting over the years were ultimately driven by self-interest. Prosecutors presented jurors with a chart comparing four different versions of events Davis had given at various points since the killing, and argued that Davis’ own 2019 memoir, which detailed the shooting, should be treated as an admission despite listing a cowriter.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft pushed back on that characterization during his closing argument, telling jurors that Davis’ account in the memoir amounted to “fiction” rather than a factual confession. Sanft argued that the evidence connecting Davis to the crime remained incomplete, pointing specifically to the absence of documentation placing Davis in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting.

Judge Carli Kierny is scheduled to sentence Davis on Oct. 13, and he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder conviction. Prosecutors had considered pursuing an additional gang enhancement to the charge but ultimately decided against it, with Palal telling the court the decision was based on “witness logistics.”

Shakur’s family, who maintained a consistent presence throughout the trial, reacted emotionally as the verdict was read. The rapper’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, was seen wiping away tears, while his stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, raised his fist in the air as loved ones embraced outside the courtroom.

The verdict arrives roughly two weeks before Shakur’s family will mark the 29th anniversary of his death on Sept. 13. Shakur died at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, located less than two miles from the courthouse where Davis stood trial, after being shot multiple times while riding in a car with Death Row Records founder Suge Knight following the Tyson fight.

Darryl Harper, a former Death Row Records producer who worked closely with Shakur and traveled from Georgia to attend the trial, described the conviction as offering a measure of long-awaited closure. “I certainly felt cheated but I’m sure a lot of the world felt cheated,” Harper said outside the courtroom following the verdict, describing the sense of injustice that “just never went away” over the decades since Shakur’s death. Harper also praised the prosecution’s closing argument, in which Palal suggested Davis had wanted to “beat” the jury just as he claimed to have beaten other obstacles throughout his life, calling the framing “brilliant” and noting that the message appeared to resonate with jurors.

CNN anchor Laura Coates, who was a college applicant at the time of Shakur’s death in 1996, reflected on the broader cultural significance of Monday’s outcome. Coates recalled hearing news of Shakur’s death spread through a bookstore three decades ago, describing a “profound sadness” that swept over people of all ages as they processed what she called the loss of “such a powerful and strong, and many would say deeply honest voice among hip-hop.” She noted it had taken nearly 30 years to reach “some semblance of justice” in the case.

Davis, a former gang leader and self-described key figure in the rivalry between East Coast and West Coast hip-hop factions during the mid-1990s, was arrested in September 2023 after prosecutors said new evidence, including admissions Davis made in his own memoir and subsequent media interviews, provided sufficient grounds to bring charges more than 27 years after the killing. Monday’s conviction marks the definitive legal resolution of a case that has generated widespread public fascination and speculation since Shakur’s death first shocked the music industry in 1996.