Photo Credit: Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis for Good Morning America / ABC News
A jury has found Duane Davis guilty in the murder of Tupac Shakur, 30 years after the rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.
The jury has found Duane “Keefe D” Davis (sometimes spelled “Keffe D”) guilty in the murder of Tupac Shakur, just weeks before the 30th anniversary of the prolific rapper’s death in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. The 63-year-old could face life in prison.
Jurors deliberated for under three hours before finding Davis guilty of murder with the use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang.
Notably, prosecutors say that Davis did not actually fire the gun that killed Shakur near the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996. Instead, they allege that was the work of another individual: either Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson (Davis’ nephew) or a third man in the backseat of the car.
However, prosecutors assert that Davis, a self-proclaimed leader of a Los Angeles street gang, orchestrated the crime and provided the gunman with the murder weapon.
According to prosecutor Binu Palal during his closing argument to the jury on Monday, the case is “drenched with circumstantial evidence” and corroborating witnesses—even without Davis’ numerous confessions to his role in Shakur’s death. Palal said that the circumstantial evidence, witness statements, and Davis’ consistent accounts to police, the media, and even his own memoir overwhelmingly point to his guilt.
“For nearly 18 years, Duane Davis has told the police, television, books, YouTube interviewers—anybody that will listen, he has told—he is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur,” Palal told the jury. “Tell him you hear him; find him guilty.”
Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued that after three decades, the only evidence prosecutors possess is Davis’ alleged confessions, which warrant skepticism. Repeatedly, Sanft highlighted the apparent lack of “real” evidence supporting his client’s own claims asserting his guilt, urging jurors to find Davis not guilty.
Davis released his memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” in 2019. Even in the book’s introduction, he states, “I’m one of the only living eyewitnesses to Tupac’s killing,” before describing the night of September 7, 1996, in chilling detail.
Shakur was shot four times with a Glock .22-caliber pistol while his car was stopped at a red light in Paradise, NV. The shots came from a white Cadillac that had pulled up alongside Shakur’s vehicle, driven by his label head, Marion “Suge” Knight. Shakur died of his injuries six days later.
The case against Davis kicked off in September 2023, with prosecutors claiming that he orchestrated the murder after Shakur’s entourage attacked Davis’ nephew, Anderson, just hours prior to the shooting.
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