Ex-gang boss found guilty in murder of Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years later

Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been found guilty of orchestrating the fatal shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur in 1996.

The 63-year-old could face life behind bars after a jury found him guilty of murder using a deadly weapon on Monday, local time (Tuesday AEST).

Davis, who was a leader of the South Side Compton Crips in California at the time, pleaded not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in the rapper’s death.

After the verdict was read, Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, cried and reached back to a person behind her.

Davis’ son, who was also in the courtroom, covered his face with his hand after his father was found guilty of the rap legend’s death.

During closing arguments, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said the 63-year-old “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Record co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight with a gun after they allegedly assaulted his nephew.

Palal noted that Davis’ accounts of the killing evolved over the years but said that those differing stories reflected his changing motivations and efforts to protect himself.

He did acknowledge that one detail remained consistent, that Davis repeatedly said he was not inside the white Cadillac that fired the deadly shots.

The panel of 16 jurors took three hours to reach the verdict, after hearing testimonies from 24 prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses over nine days.

“The core facts remain. The material facts remain,” Palal said.

The prosecution added that it would dismiss the gang enhancement charge due to witness logistics.

Justice after multi-decade cold case

Hip-hop fans have waited decades for the case to be resolved, as Shakur’s shooting death was formally examined in a criminal court for the first time.

The rap legend had just gone to a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas before being fatally shot in his car as he was leaving in a black BMW on September 7, 1996.

The car was pulled up at a set of traffic lights just off the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac drove up beside it.

Someone rolled down the passenger window and fatally shot Tupac multiple times.

The 25-year-old musician and actor died six days later.

Shakur’s death came as his fourth solo album had sold five million copies.

“Whoever had anything to do with it, whoever set it up, whoever had any hand in it, should be locked up in prison,” said Shakur’s cousin, Kendrick Lesane.

The case went cold until public statements and a tell-all memoir from Davis in 2019 revived it, and he was arrested in 2023.

Prosecutors did not accuse Davis of pulling the trigger that night, and the trial did not confirm who did.

Instead, prosecutors showed that Davis made the calls that led to Shakur’s death and provided the gun.

Davis co-wrote the memoir Compton Street Legend, which vividly describes the shooting.

The book states that Davis obtained a handgun from an associate and tossed it into the back seat of the Cadillac, but it did not state who fired the fatal shots.

Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew, was long considered the suspect who pulled the trigger, but charges were never brought against him.

He died two years after Shakur in an unrelated gang shootout in Compton.

Two others, DeAndre “Freaky” Smith and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown, were in the car with Davis and Anderson, but both have since died.

Prosecutors called dozens of witnesses throughout the proceedings, ranging from individuals who saw Shakur moments before he was shot to those who were in both Shakur’s and Davis’ orbits at the time.