More than three decades after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, a former gang leader is set to face trial today in one of America’s most closely watched unsolved killings.
The case is expected to run for about a month, but the proceedings may never establish which man pulled the trigger on the night of 7 September 1996, when the 25-year-old rapper was in the city to attend a Mike Tyson boxing match.
Prosecutors will instead seek to prove that the defendant, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, arranged the attack and supplied the weapon used in the drive-by shooting that killed Mr Shakur.
Mr Davis, 63, could receive life in prison without parole if convicted.
Shakur’s death came at the height of a bitter hip-hop feud that divided the industry along East Coast and West Coast lines.
The artist behind hits including “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me” was the son of a Black Panther and spent his early years in Harlem and Baltimore. After signing with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, however, he became closely associated with the image of a California bad boy.
His trial will bring renewed attention to the rivalry between Death Row, founded by Marion “Suge” Knight, and Bad Boy Records, the East Coast label established by Sean “Diddy” Combs and built around Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, who was murdered in March 1997.
According to prosecutors, Death Row was backed by Mob Piru, a Los Angeles gang aligned with the broader Bloods alliance. Mr Knight was affiliated with the group.
Bad Boy Records, meanwhile, had hired the rival South Side Compton Crips, led by Mr Davis, to provide security.
Duane “Keefe D” Davis appears in a Las Vegas court on 19 October 2023
After the Tyson bout at the MGM Grand casino, Mr Knight and Mr Shakur confronted and beat Mr Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, a member of the Crips. The assault was carried out in retaliation for an alleged attack on a Death Row employee.
Prosecutors say the incident gave Mr Davis a motive for revenge.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Mr Davis, Mr Anderson and several others drew alongside Mr Shakur’s vehicle in Las Vegas. Gunfire erupted from the Cadillac, striking the rapper and fatally wounding him.
Compromising memoirs
For years, the investigation made little progress, largely because authorities lacked sufficient evidence. The case was revived after the publication of Mr Davis’s memoirs in 2019.
In the book, Mr Davis wrote that he was sitting in the front of the Cadillac and had passed a pistol to people in the back seat. He did not identify the person who fired at Mr Shakur.
All of the other people in the Cadillac that night have since died.
The revelations echoed comments Mr Davis had previously made to journalists.
This time, however, his statements helped bring about his arrest in September 2023.
Mr Davis has since withdrawn those claims and pleaded not guilty.
“I’m innocent. I ain’t killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody,” Mr Davis said in March 2025 during an interview with ABC News from prison. “They don’t have no evidence against me. They can’t even put me in Las Vegas.”
Mr Davis now maintains that he was in Los Angeles on the night of Mr Shakur’s killing and says he has never read his own memoir. He has argued that his co-author exaggerated the account to boost sales.
“I just gave him details of my life,” Mr Davis said. “And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
Before the trial, Mr Davis’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent prosecutors from introducing the memoir as evidence, as well as statements he gave police in 2008 while serving as a witness to the killing.
The case will begin with jury selection, a process expected to last one week.
Whatever the outcome, the verdict is unlikely to bring complete relief to those closest to Mr Shakur.
In May, the rapper’s stepbrother, Maurice Shakur, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in civil court.
“There remain individuals who were involved in Tupac’s murder who, for 30 years, have not been held accountable for their crimes,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit refers to a recent television documentary mini-series, “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” in which Mr Davis says he told police that Combs, who is now serving time in prison, offered him $1 million to kill Mr Shakur.
