Davis Found Guilty Of Killing Tupac Nearly 30 Years Later

A Las Vegas jury has convicted former Los Angeles gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis of the 1996 killing of American rap star Tupac Shakur.

Davis, 63, was found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon on Monday, nearly three decades after the shooting that claimed the life of the 25-year-old hip-hop icon.

The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for only a few hours.

“Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon,” the jury foreperson announced in court.

Davis, who could be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, told Judge Carli Kierny after the verdict that he intended to appeal.

Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas after attending a heavyweight boxing bout involving Mike Tyson.

The rapper was travelling in the front passenger seat of a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled alongside the vehicle at a traffic light.

A gunman inside the Cadillac opened fire, hitting Shakur several times. Knight was also wounded in the attack.

Prosecutors argued that the shooting was a retaliation for an earlier confrontation at a Las Vegas casino, where members of Shakur’s entourage had assaulted Davis’ nephew.

According to the prosecution, Davis responded by obtaining a firearm, assembling members of his gang and setting out to confront Shakur.

Prosecutor Binu Palal told the jury during closing arguments, “Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs, could not let that stand.

“So what did he do? He acquired a firearm, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr Shakur.”

Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was the only person in the Cadillac that night who was still alive when the case eventually resulted in an arrest.

Prosecutors said Davis handed a firearm to another occupant of the vehicle and directed him to shoot Shakur.

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The investigation made little progress for decades until Davis’ public statements and memoir brought renewed attention to the killing.

Davis had previously spoken about the shooting in interviews with the media and law enforcement authorities. His 2019 autobiography, Compton Street Legend, also contained accounts that prosecutors relied on to connect him to the crime.

However, Davis later changed his position, denied responsibility and pleaded not guilty.

During the trial, Palal presented recordings of Davis’ previous statements to the jury, portraying them as admissions of his involvement.

Davis’ lawyer, Michael Sanft, argued that his client’s previous accounts could not be treated as reliable confessions.

He told the jury that Davis had exaggerated his involvement, partly to generate publicity for his memoir.

Sanft said, “You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact.

“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.”

The defence maintained that there was no independent evidence tying Davis directly to the murder apart from his own statements.

His lawyers had previously sought to prevent the prosecution from introducing both his memoir and statements he made during a 2008 police interview, but the efforts were unsuccessful.

Shakur was one of the defining figures of 1990s American hip-hop and a central figure in the highly publicised rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast rap scenes.

Born to a family with links to the Black Panther movement, he spent parts of his childhood in New York and Baltimore before establishing himself as a major figure in California’s hip-hop culture.

After joining Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, he produced several commercially successful albums and became known worldwide for songs including California Love and All Eyez on Me.

Davis is scheduled to be sentenced on October 13.