GUWAHATI: Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former gang leader accused of orchestrating the 1996 killing of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur, has been convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the decades-old case.
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A Clark County jury in Nevada deliberated for nearly three hours on Monday before finding the 63-year-old Davis guilty of one count of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, following an 11-day trial in Las Vegas.
Davis, who is the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur’s murder, stood impassively in court as the verdict was read. He later said he would appeal the conviction.
Prosecutors argued that Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, helped plan the killing and provided the firearm used in the shooting. They alleged that his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was the person who opened fire on Shakur.
During the trial, jurors heard a 2008 police interview in which Davis said he was inside the vehicle from which the shots were fired but maintained that he was not the person who pulled the trigger. Anderson, who denied involvement in Shakur’s killing, was killed in an unrelated shooting in 1998.
Shakur was 25 years old when he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996. He died six days later from his injuries, at a time when tensions between rival East Coast and West Coast rap camps were closely linked to wider gang rivalries.
The case remained unsolved for nearly three decades and became one of the most prominent cold cases in the United States. The investigation was revived in later years after Davis repeatedly discussed his alleged involvement in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.
Davis has since denied the murder charge and pleaded not guilty.
Shakur's relatives held hands, hugged and cried as the guilty verdict was announced, bringing a conviction in a case that had remained unresolved for almost 30 years.