Prosecutor frames Tupac Shakur murder as revenge in opening of trial against alleged mastermind

Opening statements began Monday in Las Vegas as the trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, started. Davis faces a charge of murder with a deadly weapon and gang-related intent for the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed rapper Tupac Shakur. He has pleaded not guilty and, if convicted, could receive a life sentence.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that the night of September 7, 1996, Shakur was filmed beating Davis’s nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, and that the shooting from a white Cadillac occurred two and a half hours later as an act of revenge. Palal said Davis did not fire the weapon himself but handed a gun to a passenger in the back seat and ordered the hit.

"On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson," Palal said. "Then, two and a half hours later ... Tupac is gunned down in a drive-by shooting from a white Cadillac in an act of revenge."

Davis’s defense attorney, Michael Sanft, called the prosecution’s narrative fiction and questioned why the Clark County district attorney’s office had not charged Davis earlier. He argued that no corroborating evidence exists after three decades.

"No one corroborates any of this," Sanft told the jury. "What facts do they have after 30 years?"

Prosecutors plan to call 35 to 45 witnesses, while the defense expects to present only a handful. They will rely on a 2019 memoir co-authored by Davis, "Compton Street Legend," and on past interviews in which Davis described handing a gun to passengers in the Cadillac. Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said the book and media statements revived the investigation and became key evidence.

The trial also features testimony from former Las Vegas police officers and eyewitnesses describing the events surrounding the shooting. Retired officer Garry Dale recounted stopping Shakur and Suge Knight earlier that night and later finding Shakur wounded after the gunfire. Witness Ingrid Stokes described hearing the shots from a nearby intersection and being treated as a suspect by police.

Family members, including Shakur’s stepbrother Maurice "Mopreme" Shakur, attended the proceedings, saying they will stand by the rapper despite the emotional toll.

"We're gonna stand by Pac as we always have," Maurice Shakur said.

The case, long unsolved, drew renewed attention after Davis was indicted in 2023, marking the first time anyone has faced charges in connection with Shakur’s death.