Duane “Keffe D” Davis found guilty of murdering Tupac Shakur, 30 years later

A Las Vegas jury on Monday found Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon in the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, delivering the first conviction in one of music history’s most notorious unsolved cases.

The panel deliberated for less than three hours before returning the verdict, with prosecutors having dismissed a gang enhancement charge shortly before the decision was read.

Jurors polled individually each affirmed the guilty verdict, closing out a nearly two-week trial that drew testimony from dozens of former investigators and law enforcement officers who worked the three-decade-old case.

The verdict came three decades after Shakur’s drive-by shooting death in Las Vegas, with Davis standing as the only person ever criminally charged in the case.

Prosecutors never claimed Davis fired the fatal shots; instead, they portrayed him as the “shot caller” who handed the murder weapon to the gunman, believed to be his nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson or another passenger in the vehicle.

The case largely rested on Davis’s own past statements about the killing, drawn from police interviews and other public comments.

Prosecutors leaned heavily on a 2008 interview in which Davis reportedly told investigators he handed his nephew a gun and said his nephew fired the fatal shots, along with details from his 2019 memoir.

Defence attorney Michael Sanft argued throughout the trial that Davis’s admissions amounted to nothing more than exaggerated stories told for money and notoriety, insisting his client was “full of crap” and noting the absence of physical evidence tying him to the crime scene.

Davis’s team also questioned why prosecutors were pursuing the case three decades later if a genuine confession existed.

Clark County prosecutors, meanwhile, cast Davis as a “shotcaller” for the South Side Compton Crips who sought revenge after Shakur’s entourage attacked his nephew earlier that night.

Davis did not testify in his own defence, and jurors heard from roughly two dozen prosecution witnesses against just three called by the defence.

Shakur’s family, a constant presence in the courtroom, embraced and wept as the verdict was read, with the rapper’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, wiping away tears.

Davis, who faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison, sat with his hands clasped as the ruling was announced.

Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny set sentencing for October 13 and ordered Davis held without bond in the meantime.

Davis has indicated he intends to appeal the verdict.

The sentencing date falls roughly a month before the anniversary of Shakur’s death, meaning his family will mark it this year knowing, for the first time in thirty years, that someone has been held accountable.