Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis sentenced for Tupac Shakur’s shooting death

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former Los Angeles gang leader found guilty of his involvement in the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, was on Tuesday sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

Per ABC News, a Las Vegas Court handed Davis, 63, the punishment after he was convicted of Shakur‘s shooting death in August. The deceased rapper’s family took the stand to give impact statements, as they reportedly made mention of the generational effects of Shakur’s death as well as having to deal with personal and human grief. 

“I do believe that when you take a life like that, you deserve every minute, every minute of the maximum amount of punishment, time to sit down and contemplate what you’ve done to this world, not just to me,” Sekyiwa Shakur said.

Judge Carli Kierny also addressed Davis before handing out the sentence.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” Judge Kierny said. “You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future, from him and just walk away from it. Especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.”

As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, a jury in August found Davis guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon after deliberating for less than three hours. Prosecutors dismissed the gang enhancement charge in the case. 

He told the judge that “he plans to appeal this matter.”

Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang in Los Angeles, was accused of ordering the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur on September 7, 1996. Prosecutors told jurors in closing arguments in August that Davis “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after members of Shakur’s entourage had beaten up Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino earlier that night.

Shakur was traveling in a BMW driven by Knight as part of a convoy of around 10 cars. While they were stopped at a red light, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them, resulting in a hail of gunfire. Shakur sustained multiple gunshot wounds and tragically passed away a week later.

Prosecutors said Davis repeatedly placed himself inside the white Cadillac from which the gunshots were fired, adding that Davis gave the gun to someone sitting in the back seat of the Cadillac and ordered that person to shoot Shakur.

All those in the Cadillac that evening are dead, except Davis.

Davis was not accused of firing the gun that killed Shakur but, under Nevada law, was charged with murder even though he did not shoot the gun himself. 

Shakur’s death is seen as one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the U.S. It had become a cold case until Davis started speaking publicly about it and even went ahead to co-author a book in which he openly mentioned that he was present in the Cadillac during the fatal drive-by shooting of Shakur. In the memoir, Davis detailed his involvement, claiming that he provided the murder weapon. 

Detectives started investigating the case again following the release of the book, and Davis was arrested in September 2023.

The 63-year-old has said that the book is fiction.

“I beat the streets, I beat the Feds, and I beat cancer,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said about what Davis said while addressing the jury during his closing arguments, per ABC News. 

“Now, he’s trying to beat 12 of you… Mr. Davis is attempting to escape responsibility for a crime everybody knows he committed, even him… End of the day, hold him accountable for the crime he committed.”

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