Tupac Shakur Murder: Ex Gang Boss Jailed 40 Years For Killing of Rapper Tupac Shakur
Duane “Keffe D” Davis – the only person ever charged with Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder – was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday in a Las Vegas court after his conviction in August.
Members of the Shakur family gave emotional impact statements.
“I do believe that when you take a life like that, you deserve every minute of the maximum amount of punishment, time to sit down and contemplate what you’ve done to this world, not just to me,” said his sister Sekyiwa Shakur.
Judge Carli Kierny said despite the decades that had elapsed, Davis would not just “walk away” from taking a man’s life. “At this time, you are going to face justice for what you did.”
The sentence comes just over 30 years after Shakur’s drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996. He died six days later.
In the years after, Davis gave a consistent account of that night in police interviews, in his self-published memoir, and in on-camera interviews. Prosecutors described him as the “shot caller” in the killing.
Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo quoted Davis’ own words: “I beat the streets, I beat the Feds, and I beat cancer. Now, he’s trying to beat 12 of you… Mr. Davis is attempting to escape responsibility for a crime everybody knows he committed, even him.”
Davis, 63, said he plans to appeal.
A onetime Los Angeles gang leader who later retired to the Vegas suburbs, Davis was arrested in September 2023 and charged with murder with the use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He has been in custody ever since. He pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers argued he lied about his involvement to sell books and that there wasn’t enough proof to put him in Vegas that night, much less in the white Cadillac from which the fatal .40 Glock shots were fired.
“The danger in this case has always been, just because we say something, is it true?” said his lawyer Michael Sanft.
Prosecutors said that by continuing to tell his story and profit from it, Davis violated his own previous immunity agreement with a joint LA task force. Vegas investigators credit his public statements for reinvigorating the case.
A jury of 12 Clark County citizens found him guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon after less than three hours deliberation in August. Prosecutors said though he did not pull the trigger, he orchestrated the drive-by shooting. – ABC News