A Las Vegas jury determined this Monday, August 31, that former gang leader Duane "Keffe D" Davis organized the shooting attack that ended the life of artist Tupac Shakur in 1996. Davis, 63, had pleaded not guilty and maintained that his stories about the crime were simple "bluster."
First modification: 09/01/2026 - 03:32
A Las Vegas jury on Monday found a former gang leader guilty of murder, naming him as the mastermind behind the drive-by shooting death of legendary hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. The ruling ends a three-decade-old case.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, was charged in Clark County, Nevada, with one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He had pleaded not guilty.
Davis was accused of leading a group of men to murder Shakur, 25, who was one of the most successful and commercially influential rap artists of the time, in retaliation for the beating of Davis's nephew.
Police had said they had long suspected Davis but did not have enough evidence to charge him until he went public with his story in media appearances and a memoir, which, along with recordings of his meetings with investigators, made up the bulk of the prosecution's case.
Davis' attorney claimed that his client's words were mere boasting and could not be corroborated by other evidence.
Read alsoThe mystery of the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur: what does the beginning of the trial reveal 30 years later?
The trial began on August 17. Prosecutors played hours of recorded conversations in which Davis said he was furious after Shakur and his entourage beat his nephew at a Las Vegas casino on Sept. 7, 1996.
Davis and three other men, including his nephew, set out in search of Shakur and record executive Marion “Suge” Knight in a white Cadillac on the night of the beating. As stated. Davis, he carried a gun into the back seat and when they found Knight and Shakur's car, one of the two men in the back opened fire.
The Prosecutor's Office has not revealed the identity of the shooter and the other three men who were in the car with Davis later died. Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder even if he was not the shooter.
Davis was one of the leaders of the Southside Compton Crips, a Los Angeles-area street gang that maintained a rivalry with the Mob Piru gang, which was associated with Shakur and his record label, Death Row Records.
Shakur's murder in 1996 became a pivotal moment in rap history and accentuated the violent image of hip-hop culture during the heyday of "gangsta" rap, an era defined by rivalries between East Coast and West Coast artists.
With Reuters
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