Duane Keith Davis sentenced to 40 years over 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur

Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis appears in court during his murder trial in Clark county district court in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 20 August. Photograph: Steve Marcus/ReutersView image in fullscreenDuane ‘Keffe D’ Davis appears in court during his murder trial in Clark county district court in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 20 August. Photograph: Steve Marcus/ReutersDuane ‘Keffe D’ Davis sentenced to 40 years to life over murder of Tupac Shakur‘You don’t get to take a man from his family … and just walk away from it,’ judge says as former gang leader sentenced

Tupac trial spotlights decades of US police failures in solving the case

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former California gang leader convicted of murder for orchestrating the 1996 fatal shooting of rapper Tupac Shakur, has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

“For three years, I’ve heard you say some variation of the same thing … ‘Yeah, I was involved in this. But I’m different. I’ve moved on. I got out of Compton. I’m a grandfather now,’” Judge Carli Kierny said Tuesday as she delivered the sentence.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family. You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him and just walk away from it.”

On 7 September 1996, Shakur was gunned down near the Las Vegas strip shortly after a Mike Tyson boxing match. He succumbed to his injuries days later.

For decades, his murder remained unsolved and one of hip-hop’s most enduring mysteries. Davis is the only person to be convicted in connection to Shakur’s murder.

Read moreA confluence of several factors hindered the investigation. The code of silence within street culture made some witnesses averse to police cooperation. Las Vegas police were skeptical about leads from their Compton counterparts, given that the head of security for Shakur’s record label was a former Compton cop.

Orlando Anderson, a gangster and Davis’s nephew, was on law enforcement’s radar as the possible gunman. The night Shakur was killed, the young rap star got into an altercation with Anderson. Las Vegas police interviewed Anderson, but he was never arrested. Anderson later died in 1998.

But then, in 2023, Davis was arrested on a murder charge.

It was Davis’s own media tour, touting his status as one of the last surviving eyewitnesses, and a 2019 “tell-all” memoir that led to the breakthrough.

Davis had felt emboldened by a 2008 backdoor deal he brokered with police. He spoke candidly to investigators about Shakur’s shooting, who had actually been seeking information about the death of Christopher Wallace, known as Biggie Smalls or The Notorious B.I.G. Under a proffer agreement, Davis was not to face charges for any offenses he shared.

In his memoir, Compton Street Legend, Davis wrote that he and a group of other men targeted Shakur and his entourage, seeking retribution for the scuffle with his nephew.

The memoir and the interview became central to prosecutor’s case. They argued the details amounted to a confession and that his public remarks voided the proffer agreement.

During Davis’s murder trial, his defense team maintained that these details were embellished. They also argued, during the trial, that there was no physical evidence, such as a murder weapon, tying Davis to the Las Vegas slaying.

Attorneys for Davis have indicated they want to appeal the conviction.