LAS VEGAS — Duane “Keffe D” Davis is set to be sentenced Tuesday for orchestrating the 1996 murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, the Associated Press reported via KTAR News.
Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and faces life in prison without parole. He is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s death.
On Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was riding in a BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up at a red light off the Las Vegas Strip and shots were fired. Shakur, 25, died six days later; Knight survived.
The case went unsolved for years until Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, described his role in interviews and in a 2019 memoir, saying he passed the gun to the back seat of the Cadillac.
At trial, prosecutors relied on Davis’ own statements to police and documentarians, arguing he provided the gun as part of a rivalry, the AP reported.
Shakur remains one of the most influential rappers of all time, and his music and films continue to draw new fans three decades after his death.
Sources: Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Julian Lupyan / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
