Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis, 63, is set to go on trial in Las Vegas on Monday over the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. Davis faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.
Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the shooting by supplying the gun, but they are not claiming he pulled the trigger. Davis pleaded not guilty in November 2023.
What happened the night Tupac was shot
Hours before the shooting, Tupac and Death Row Records founder Marion ‘Suge’ Knight were involved in a fight at the MGM Grand after a Mike Tyson boxing match. The group involved included Davis’s nephew, Orlando ‘Baby Lane’ Anderson.
Later that night, Tupac was shot six times from a white Cadillac while riding in a car to a Las Vegas club where he was due to perform. Authorities said Davis was one of four men in the Cadillac. Tupac died six days later, on September 13, 1996, aged 25. The car and gun were never recovered.
Why Davis is the only defendant
Davis is a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, which had a rivalry with the Mob Piru gang, associated with Tupac and Knight. The other three men authorities identified as being in the Cadillac, including Anderson, have since died.
Davis has been held in jail since 2023 while awaiting trial. In 2025, he was found guilty of battery after a fight in jail, according to Nevada media cited in the source material.
The evidence and what the jury must decide
The case stems largely from Davis’s own accounts. In his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, he described obtaining a gun, entering a Cadillac with three other people and searching for Tupac and Knight after the fight involving Anderson. Davis also discussed the shooting in interviews published on YouTube in later years, but he has not identified who fired the gun.
The trial is expected to last four to six weeks. Prosecutors plan to call between 35 and 45 witnesses, including police, technical witnesses and associates of Tupac and Davis. Knight is on the witness list and may be summoned, although he has said he wants no part in the trial; he is serving a 28-year prison sentence for a 2015 killing.
Davis’s defence unsuccessfully sought to exclude his memoir. Under Nevada law, prosecutors can pursue a murder charge if Davis is found to have orchestrated the killing even if he did not fire the weapon. The defence is expected to argue that his accounts were fabricated, and it has not said whether Davis will testify.
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