A Las Vegas jury has convicted Duane “Keffe D” Davis in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, marking the first conviction in the case nearly 30 years after the rapper was shot. Davis, 63, was found guilty Monday after about three hours of deliberation on a first-degree murder charge involving a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors said Davis sought revenge after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was beaten by Shakur’s group on the day of the shooting. They argued Davis helped obtain a gun, rode in a Cadillac that chased Shakur, and helped carry out the attack. Under Nevada law, a person can be held responsible for murder even if he did not fire the weapon, as long as he helped plan or assist the crime.
The case remained unsolved for years until Davis publicly discussed his role in a 2019 memoir and in interviews, saying he was in the Cadillac and passed the gun to the back seat. Prosecutors used those statements, along with media interviews and scrapbook materials, as key evidence that Davis helped direct the crime.
Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, was in court when the verdict was read and cried while embracing prosecutors. The conviction brings legal closure to one of hip-hop’s most famous cold cases, and Davis now faces the possibility of life in prison.
