A Las Vegas jury has found former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane Keith Davis, also ‘Keffe D’, guilty of the 1996 murder of US rap icon Tupac Shakur, bringing a nearly 30-year-old case closer to a conclusion. The jury reportedly deliberated for about three hours before returning the verdict.
Prosecutors said Davis helped organise the shooting after Shakur and members of his entourage were involved in a confrontation with Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Shakur was later shot four times while travelling in a car near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996, and died days later at the age of 25.
The case relied heavily on statements Davis made over several years, including accounts contained in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. Prosecutors presented recordings in which Davis described his involvement, while his defence argued that his statements were exaggerated attempts to profit from the enduring public interest in Shakur’s death.
Shakur’s family and fans welcomed the verdict after decades of unanswered questions surrounding the killing. Davis, who was arrested in 2023, plans to appeal. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 13, with first-degree murder in Nevada carrying a possible penalty of 20 years to life in prison.
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