by Mildred Europa Taylor, Face2FaceAfrica.com
Almost three decades after the shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur, former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis was found guilty of orchestrating his murder.
On Monday, the jury deliberated on the charge of murder against Davis with two modifiers — one in connection to gang relations and the other tied to the use of a firearm.
The jury found the 63-year-old guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon after deliberating for less than three hours. Prosecutors dismissed the gang enhancement charge in the case.
Davis’ sentencing is scheduled for October 13, when he faces life in prison without parole for his first-degree murder conviction.
He told the judge that “he plans to appeal this matter”.
Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang in Los Angeles, was accused of ordering the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur on September 7, 1996. Prosecutors told jurors in closing arguments earlier Monday that Davis “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after members of Shakur’s entourage had beaten up Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino earlier that night.
“Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand,” prosecutor Binu Palal said during closing arguments. “So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together and went hunting for Mr Shakur.”
Shakur was traveling in a BMW driven by Marion “Suge” Knight, the founder of Death Row Records, as part of a convoy of around 10 cars. While they were stopped at a red light, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them, resulting in a hail of gunfire. Shakur sustained multiple gunshot wounds and tragically passed away a week later.
Prosecutors said Davis repeatedly placed himself inside the white Cadillac from which the gunshots were fired, adding that Davis gave the gun to someone sitting in the back seat of the Cadillac and ordered that person to shoot Shakur.
All those in the Cadillac that evening are dead, except Davis.
Davis was not accused of firing the gun that killed Shakur but, under Nevada law, was charged with murder even though he did not shoot the gun himself.
Shakur’s death is seen as one of the most notorious unsolved murders in the U.S. It had become a cold case until Davis started speaking publicly about it and even went ahead to co-author a book in which he openly mentioned that he was present in the Cadillac during the fatal drive-by shooting of Shakur. In the memoir, Davis detailed his involvement, claiming that he provided the murder weapon.
Detectives started investigating the case again following the release of the book, and Davis was arrested in September 2023.
The 63-year-old has said that the book is fiction.
Palal, as part of his closing arguments, played clips from some of Davis’s alleged confessions.
Michael Sanft, Davis’s defense attorney, argued that his client’s confessions were fiction and lies as part of moves to promote his book.
“You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact,” Sanft told the jury. “But the state wants you to believe that this is somehow a confession, that he was there and present at the time of the shooting.”
Davis’s lawyers earlier attempted to keep the book from being introduced as evidence, along with an interview Davis had with police in 2008. They did not succeed.
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