Jurors Begin Deliberations in Duane Davis Trial for Tupac Shakur Murder
A Nevada jury started deliberating on the first-degree murder case against Duane “Keffe D” Davis, accused of orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed rapper Tupac Shakur.
Jurors in Las Vegas began deliberations Monday in the first-degree murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who faces a single count of murder with a deadly weapon for the 1996 shooting that killed rapper Tupac Shakur. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told the panel that Davis obtained a firearm, entered a white Cadillac, and “went hunting” for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after they assaulted Davis’s nephew earlier that night. Palal acknowledged that Davis’s accounts of the incident have changed over time but argued the core detail—Davis placing himself inside the Cadillac from which the shots were fired—remains consistent. > “The core facts remain. The material facts remain,” Palal said.
Davis’s defense attorney Michael Sanft countered that the prosecution presented no independent evidence, such as surveillance footage or phone records, placing Davis in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, or inside the Cadillac. > “They have nothing in this case that says that man was here in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996,” Sanft asserted.
The trial, which lasted nine days and featured testimony from 24 prosecution witnesses and three defense witnesses, focused on whether Davis’s statements and alleged gang affiliations make him criminally responsible for providing the gun and ordering the attack, rather than on who actually fired the weapon. Prosecutors highlighted a rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru gangs, testimony linking Davis to the night’s events, and a scrapbook of newspaper articles about Shakur that Davis kept. > “It’s a plan, not an impulse,” Palal said.
Davis, 63, has repeatedly claimed he was in the Cadillac and handed the gun to a passenger, but he has not identified who pulled the trigger. The prosecution argued that his own memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and public interviews reinforce the prosecution’s narrative, while the defense argued the statements were self-serving and lack corroboration. The jury, composed of 16 members with four alternates, will now determine whether Davis can be convicted under Nevada law, which allows a murder conviction for individuals who aid or direct the crime.