Three decades after Tupac Shakur was killed in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, prosecutors are expected to lay out their case against a former gang leader accused of ordering the attack.
The trial could run for more than a month, though it may never establish who pulled the trigger on the night of 7 September 1996, when the 25-year-old rapper was in the gambling capital to attend a Mike Tyson fight.
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Prosecutors will argue that Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, sought revenge, organised the ambush and supplied the weapon used in the shooting.
Mr Davis, 63, attended court last week as jurors were chosen. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has pleaded not guilty
Shakur’s death came amid one of hip-hop’s defining feuds, a bitter rivalry that divided the music industry between the East Coast and West Coast.
He was known for songs including “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me”. The son of a Black Panther, Shakur spent his early years in Harlem and Baltimore before becoming closely associated with the image of a California rebel after signing to Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.
The case will bring renewed attention to the conflict between Death Row, founded by Marion “Suge” Knight, and Bad Boy Records, the East Coast label established by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Bad Boy signed Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, who was killed in March 1997.
According to prosecutors, Death Row was protected by Mob Piru, a Los Angeles gang linked to the broader Bloods alliance.
Mr Knight was associated with the group.
Bad Boy Records, meanwhile, had hired the rival South Side Compton Crips, led by Mr Davis, to provide security.
Following the Tyson bout at the MGM Grand casino, Mr Knight and Shakur confronted and assaulted Mr Davis’s nephew, Crips member Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson. The attack was said to have been retaliation for an alleged assault on a Death Row employee.
Prosecutors contend that the incident prompted Mr Davis to seek revenge.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Mr Davis, Mr Anderson and several others stopped alongside Shakur’s vehicle in Las Vegas.
Gunfire erupted from the Cadillac, leaving Shakur fatally wounded.
The investigation stalled for decades amid a lack of evidence, but authorities revisited the case after Mr Davis’s memoir was published in 2019.
In the book, he wrote that he had been sitting in the Cadillac’s front seat and had passed a pistol to people in the back.
He did not identify the person who fired at Shakur.
All of the other people believed to have been inside the Cadillac that night have since died.
Mr Davis later withdrew those claims, saying they were exaggerated and that a ghostwriter had invented them to help sell the book.
He has pleaded not guilty.
