A Las Vegas jury has convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis of first-degree murder for orchestrating the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur.
Davis, 63, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was found guilty on Monday, August 31, after less than three hours of deliberations following an 11-day trial.
He is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s death.
Prosecutors said Davis provided the gun and ordered the drive-by shooting as revenge after Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight beat up his nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that night on September 7, 1996.
The court heard that while Davis did not pull the trigger himself, he was the “shot caller” inside the white Cadillac from which Shakur was shot near the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur, 25, died six days later.
Much of the state’s case relied on Davis’s own statements in police interviews, TV documentaries and his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend.
Davis faces life in prison without parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 13 and told the judge he intends to appeal.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
