A former street gang leader orchestrated the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed hip-hop star Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas as retaliation for the beating of his nephew, prosecutors told jurors as opening statements began in his murder trial.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is charged in Nevada’s Clark County with one count of murder using a deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty.
Davis is accused of leading a group of men to kill Shakur, who was 25 at the time, in a drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip.
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“You will learn that when the opportunity presented itself for retribution, Duane Davis made sure that the shooters were armed and ready to execute their plan. And remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself,” prosecutor Binu Palal told jurors, referring to public statements made by Davis that helped revive the long-dormant case.
Defense lawyer Michael Sandt argued that investigators still have little evidence to prove their case nearly 30 years after Shakur’s death.
Sandt told jurors that Davis had a habit of talking “bullshit” and argued that accounts he gave in interviews and his book could not be corroborated.
“Just look at the actual facts. What facts do you have to support any of what Keffe D said in any of his interviews or the book?” Sandt told the jury.
A case nearly three decades old
Shakur was one of hip-hop’s most commercially successful and influential artists when he was killed. His death became one of the most notorious unsolved cases in music and intensified attention around the East Coast-West Coast rap feud of the 1990s.
Police said following Davis’ arrest in 2023 that he had long been a suspect in the killing, but investigators previously lacked sufficient admissible evidence to charge him.
The case gained new momentum after Davis began speaking publicly about his alleged involvement in the shooting.
The trial, before Judge Carli Kierny in downtown Las Vegas, is expected to last up to six weeks. The jury was selected last week.
It could also feature testimony from Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight, who was with Shakur on the night of the shooting. Knight is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction.
The alleged revenge plot
Authorities have described Davis as the “shot caller” behind a plot to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur and members of the rapper’s entourage inside the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996.
The confrontation allegedly stemmed from hostility between two Los Angeles-area street gangs, the South Side Compton Crips, which Davis described himself as leading, and Mob Piru, which police say was associated with Knight and Death Row Records.
The groups were in Las Vegas for a world heavyweight title boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.
Authorities allege Davis obtained the murder weapon and handed it to one of two men sitting in the back seat of a white Cadillac as they drove around looking for Knight and Shakur following the casino confrontation.
The group eventually caught up with the vehicle carrying Knight and Shakur and shots were fired.
Shakur was struck four times and died in hospital six days later. Knight, who was driving, suffered a minor wound after a bullet fragment grazed his head.
How the cold case was revived
The murder investigation remained cold for years, but police said statements Davis made to media outlets in 2018 about his involvement helped reinvigorate the case.
Davis said in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he was sitting in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and handed the gun to one of the two men behind him, according to police.
Authorities have not identified who fired the shots that killed Shakur. The three other men who were in the Cadillac with Davis have since died.
Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder if prosecutors prove he participated in the crime even if he did not pull the trigger.
In his memoir, Davis also wrote that he had long been considered a suspect in the killings of Shakur and rival rapper Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G.
Wallace was shot dead in Los Angeles in March 1997. His killing remains unsolved.
Investigators have long speculated that Wallace’s death may have been retaliation for Shakur’s killing months earlier.
Source: Khaleej Times