Duane “Keffe D” Davis – the only person ever charged with the murder of Tupac Shakur – was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday in a Las Vegas court after his conviction in August.
The sentence comes just over 30 years after the rap icon’s drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. Shakur succumbed to his gunshot wounds six days after being gunned down.
In the ensuing years, Davis went on to tell a remarkably consistent account of what happened that night. In multiple police interviews, on the pages of his own self-published memoir, and in multiple on-camera interviews for the world to see, Davis allegedly confessed to what prosecutors would describe as his “shot caller” role in the infamous killing.
“I beat the streets, I beat the Feds, and I beat cancer,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo quoted of Davis’ own words to the jury in his closing argument. “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.”
Davis, now 63, has said he plans to appeal his conviction.
A onetime Los Angeles gang leader who later retired to the Vegas suburbs, Davis was arrested in September 2023 and charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang, in connection with Shakur’s murder. He has been in custody ever since. Once arrested, Davis pleaded not guilty and insisted on his innocence.
His lawyers argued he lied about his involvement in the murder and that there wasn’t enough proof to put him in Vegas that night, much less in the white Cadillac from which the fatal .40 Glock shots were allegedly fired.
“The danger in this case has always been, just because we say something, is it true?” Davis’ lawyer Michael Sanft said in his attempt to persuade the jury.
But in the years prior, Davis had plenty to say about his crucial role in the killing. He repeatedly admitted to his alleged role in Shakur’s death, which he said was prompted by an escalating tit-for-tat of diss track and gangland retaliation that all came to a deadly head after the Tyson vs. Seldon boxing match the night of the shooting.
In continuing to tell his story and even profit from it, prosecutors said, Davis violated his own previous immunity agreement with a joint LA-task force. In fact, Vegas investigators credit Davis’ many public statements for reinvigorating the case – statements they worked to corroborate.
A jury of 12 Clark County citizens agreed – that Davis’ own words, bolstered by other evidence brought at trial, were to be believed. After less than three hours’ deliberation in August, they unanimously found Davis guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors said that, though he did not pull the trigger, Davis orchestrated the rap icon’s drive-by shooting that night.
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