Tupac Shakur murder trial opens for ex-gang leader charged in 1996 killing
LAS VEGAS — Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the former street-gang leader accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur three decades ago.
Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder with a deadly weapon. Clark County prosecutors say he led a group of men who targeted Shakur, then 25 and already one of rap's most commercially successful and influential voices, in a shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996. Shakur died at a hospital six days later.
The killing became one of the defining moments in hip-hop history. It sharpened the violent image that surrounded "gangsta" rap at its commercial peak and fueled the East Coast-West Coast rivalry that helped turn the genre's biggest stars into symbols of a broader cultural war.
Davis was not arrested until 2023. Police said he had long been a suspect, but investigators lacked enough admissible evidence to charge him until he began talking publicly about his involvement in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, "Compton Street Legend."
The trial before Judge Carli Kierny is expected to run up to six weeks in a downtown Las Vegas courthouse. One possible witness is Marion "Suge" Knight, a co-founder of Death Row Records who was driving the car Shakur was in when the shooting happened. Knight is now serving 28 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter in an unrelated case.
'Shot caller'
Authorities have described Davis as the "shot caller" of a hurried scheme to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur and members of his entourage inside the MGM Grand casino earlier that night.
The confrontation grew out of hostility between two Los Angeles-area street gangs: the South Side Compton Crips, which Davis has described himself as leading, and Mob Piru, a group tied to Knight and Death Row Records. Both sides were in Las Vegas for the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight title fight.
According to police, Davis obtained the gun and handed it to one of two men in the back seat of a white Cadillac as the group drove around looking for Shakur and Knight's vehicle after the brawl. When the Cadillac caught up, shots were fired. Shakur was struck four times. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment and suffered a minor head injury.
Cold case heats up
The murder case went cold for nearly three decades. Police said it was revived in 2018 by Davis' own statements to media outlets about his role in the shooting.
Davis said in interviews and in his memoir that he was riding in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and passed a gun to one of the two men sitting behind him, according to police. Neither Davis nor authorities have identified the person believed to have fired the fatal shots. The other three men in the Cadillac have since died.
Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder even if he did not pull the trigger, as long as he participated in the crime.
In his book, Davis also acknowledged being long considered a suspect in the murders of Shakur and Christopher Wallace, the rapper known as The Notorious B.I.G. and signed to New York's Bad Boy Entertainment label. Wallace was shot dead in Los Angeles in March 1997. That killing remains unsolved, but there has long been speculation that it was retaliation for Shakur's death.
The trial is being closely watched as one of the last courtroom chapters in a murder that has haunted hip-hop for decades. Whatever the outcome, the case has already revived old questions about the original police investigation and the gang violence that defined an era of American music.