Ex-gang leader to stand trial over 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur

Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Monday in the murder trial of American rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, nearly 30 years after the rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is facing one count of murder with a deadly weapon in Clark County, Nevada. 

He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors allege that Davis organised the attack that led to the death of Tupac Shakur on September 7, 1996.

Shakur, who was 25 at the time, was shot near the Las Vegas Strip after attending a boxing match featuring Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. He died six days later in hospital.

The trial will be heard by Judge Carli Kierny in downtown Las Vegas and is expected to last up to six weeks. 

Prosecutors may call Marion “Suge” Knight as a witness. Knight was in the car with Shakur during the shooting and is currently serving a prison sentence in an unrelated case.

According to investigators, the shooting happened after a fight inside the MGM Grand casino involving Shakur, members of his group, and associates of Davis. 

Police say the dispute involved members of the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru.

Authorities have described Davis as the “shot caller” in a plan to retaliate for the assault on his nephew. 

They allege he obtained the gun and passed it to one of the men sitting in the back seat of a white Cadillac that later pulled alongside Shakur’s vehicle.

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When the Cadillac caught up with the car carrying Shakur and Knight, shots were fired. Shakur was hit four times, while Knight suffered a minor head injury from a bullet fragment.

The Tupac Shakur murder trial follows years of investigation. Police said Davis had long been a suspect, but they did not have enough admissible evidence to charge him until after a series of public statements he made about the case.

Investigators say Davis later spoke about the shooting in media interviews and in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.” 

According to police, he said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and handed the gun to one of the men behind him.

However, neither Davis nor prosecutors have identified who fired the fatal shots. The three other men who were in the Cadillac have since died.

Under Nevada law, a person can be convicted of murder if they participated in the crime even if they did not pull the trigger.

In his book, Davis also wrote that he had long been considered a suspect in the killings of Shakur and Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G., who was shot dead in Los Angeles in 1997. Wallace’s murder remains unsolved, and investigators have long examined whether it was connected to Shakur’s killing.