Jury convicts Davis of Tupac Shakur murder

A jury on Monday convicted Duane "Keffe D" Davis of first-degree murder for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, bringing resolution to a case that had gripped hip-hop fans for nearly three decades.

The 63-year-old Davis was found guilty of a single count of murder with a deadly weapon after a weekslong trial in Las Vegas. The jury, which included four alternates among its 16 members, deliberated for less than three hours before returning the verdict. Davis could be sentenced to life in prison.

Shakur's sister, Sekyiwa "Set" Shakur, cried and hugged prosecutors after the verdict was read, while Davis' son covered his face with one hand.

In closing arguments earlier Monday, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis acquired a gun and "went hunting" for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight after the two men had beaten up Davis' nephew earlier that night. "He is responsible of the murder of Tupac Shakur," Palal said, urging jurors, "Tell him you hear him. Find him guilty."

Prosecutors said Davis had repeatedly placed himself inside a white Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired, even though his account had shifted over the years. While he did not pull the trigger, prosecutors argued evidence showed Davis, a senior gang figure, had called for the shooting and that the younger men in the car, including his nephew, followed his orders.

Defence attorney Michael Sanft countered by asking jurors whether there was any evidence that Davis had ever called the shots before or after the shooting. During the nine-day trial, jurors heard testimony from 24 prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses. Prosecutors said the state would dismiss a gang enhancement charge, citing witness logistics.

Shakur, regarded as one of the most influential rappers of all time, was shot on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas when a white Cadillac pulled up beside his car at a red light and gunfire erupted. He died six days later; Knight, who was also in the car, was wounded but survived.

No one was charged in the killing for years until Davis began making public statements saying he was in the Cadillac and had handed the gun to others in the back seat, describing the shooting as retaliation for the assault on his nephew. Davis was the only person still alive among the four men prosecutors said were in the vehicle.

Witnesses at the trial described a hostile rivalry between two Los Angeles gangs — Mob Piru and Davis' South Side Compton Crips — and their affiliations with rival record labels, Knight's Death Row Records and Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records.

Sanft argued there was no physical evidence, including phone records, linking his client to the shooting, and said Davis' co-authored book and public statements were "dramatised bravado" meant to generate money rather than convey the truth. "They have nothing in this case that says that man was here in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996," Sanft told jurors.

In rebuttal, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo pointed to a scrapbook Davis kept containing articles about Shakur. "This guy's scrapbooking his murder, for God's sake," DiGiacomo said.

Palal also held up Davis' 2019 memoir, "Compton Street Legend," during closing arguments and played an interview in which Davis urged people to buy the book to learn the "real truth." Prosecutors said that although the book carried a disclaimer noting some facts were altered, its central account remained unchanged. Sanft, too, referred to the memoir in his closing, reading an excerpt aloud that included a racial slur, prompting visible reactions from people watching in an overflow courtroom.

In various interviews, Davis said he had handed the gun to the back seat but declined, both in interviews and in his book, to say who fired the fatal shot.

Law enforcement witnesses testified that Davis was briefly considered a suspect in the killing of the Notorious B.I.G., which occurred six months after Shakur's death, before being ruled out. That case remains unsolved.

(Sourced through PTI)