Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis was convicted on Monday, August 31, of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for the 1996 killing of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur, per usatoday.com.
A Las Vegas jury returned the verdict after less than three hours of deliberations following a two-week trial.
Prosecutors established that Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, orchestrated the fatal shooting as an act of gang retaliation on Sept. 7, 1996. Evidence showed Davis supplied the weapon and instructed gang members to open fire after Shakur and Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight assaulted Davis’s nephew earlier that evening. Shakur died from his injuries six days later, while Knight survived a gunshot wound.
The case remained unsolved for decades until Davis was indicted in 2023, prompted heavily by admissions in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and previous police interviews where he confessed to being in the vehicle and providing the firearm. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal noted during the trial that Davis repeatedly acknowledged his presence during the events. While the defense argued that Davis fabricated his involvement for publicity and called the evidence incomplete, the jury rejected these claims.
Davis, the only individual charged in connection with the homicide, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on October 13.