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Former gang leader Keffe D sentenced to 40 years to life for Tupac Shakur's murder
Duane Davis, 63, is the only person ever charged over the 1996 Las Vegas shooting. He told the court he would appeal.
Key points
- A Las Vegas judge sentenced Duane "Keffe D" Davis to 40 years to life in prison.
- Davis was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon for the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur.
- His own public boasts in interviews and a memoir helped prosecutors build the case nearly 30 years on.
A former gang leader was sentenced in Las Vegas on Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, in a case that went unsolved for almost 30 years.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, once a leader of the South Side Compton Crips, is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s death. He had been found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.
“The world never forgot about him and his death, and neither did Las Vegas,” Judge Carli Kierny said as she passed sentence.
The 1996 shooting
Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on 7 September 1996 while sitting in the passenger seat of a black BMW stopped at a red light, after attending a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight. He died six days later, aged 25. The shooting came about two hours after a confrontation between Shakur’s entourage and Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson.
Investigators suspected Davis for decades but lacked the evidence to charge him. What changed was Davis himself: he talked about his role in media interviews and in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, where he admitted handing the gun to companions in a white Cadillac. He is the only one from that car still alive.
A 2008 agreement with federal agents had given him limited immunity for statements made in private. Prosecutors argued that his public accounts voided that protection.
Family in court
Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Davis was trying to profit from a killing he committed and was “guaranteed to die” behind bars. Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, told the court: “This man’s life mattered.” His brother, Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, called the murder “devastating, heartbreaking and sad”.
Asked if he wished to say anything more, Davis replied: “No, I’m good.” He asked for seized property, including personal photographs, to be returned, and said he would “appeal this case for sure”.