Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former Los Angeles gang leader, has been found guilty of the 1996 murder of chart-topping rapper Tupac Shakur by a Las Vegas court.
Thirty years after Shakur’s death, the jury reached the verdict on Monday after only a few hours of deliberation, finding Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.
“Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon,” the jury foreperson announced.
Davis, who faces a possible life sentence without parole, told Judge Carli Kierny after the verdict that he intended to appeal.
The former leader of the South Side Compton Crips was accused of organising the September 7, 1996 attack after his nephew was beaten by members of Shakur’s entourage at a Las Vegas casino.
“Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand,” prosecutor Binu Palal said during closing arguments. “So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr Shakur.”
Shakur was in Las Vegas to attend a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight when he was shot about two hours after the casino confrontation. A gunman in a white Cadillac pulled alongside the BMW carrying Shakur in the front passenger seat and opened fire at a red light.
Prosecutors alleged that Davis handed a gun to someone in the back seat of the Cadillac and ordered that person to shoot Shakur, who died six days later. Davis is the only person from the Cadillac that night who remains alive.
Marion “Suge” Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records and the driver of the BMW, was also wounded in the attack.
The murder of Shakur, also known as 2Pac, became one of the most prominent unsolved cases in the United States, generating decades of speculation over who was responsible and why.
Davis is the only person to have been charged in connection with the shooting. His sentencing is scheduled for October 13.
The investigation remained largely stalled for decades due to a lack of evidence before the case was revived following the publication of Davis’s memoir in 2019.
In “Compton Street Legend,” Davis wrote that he was sitting in the front of the Cadillac and handed a pistol to people in the back seat, although he did not identify who fired at Shakur.
Davis had previously spoken publicly and to law enforcement about his alleged involvement in the killing, but later withdrew those claims and pleaded not guilty.
During closing arguments, Palal presented clips from what prosecutors described as Davis’s various confessions.
Davis’s defence lawyer, Michael Sanft, argued that the statements were fictional and partly intended to promote his book.
“You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact,” Sanft told the jury, arguing that the prosecution had no evidence connecting Davis to the murder apart from his own statements.
Before the trial, Davis’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent prosecutors from introducing his memoir and statements he made during a 2008 police interview as evidence.
Shakur, who was 25 when he died, was a central figure in the hip-hop rivalry between the US East Coast and West Coast. Known for songs including “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me,” he was raised in Harlem and Baltimore before becoming one of the defining figures of California hip-hop after signing with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.
Source: AFP
