Duane Davis Sentenced for Tupac Murder: 40 Years to Life
The former Southside Compton Crips leader was sentenced in Las Vegas, with 731 days in custody credited toward the term. A jury found him guilty on August 31.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis (63), a former leader of the Southside Compton Crips gang, was sentenced in Las Vegas to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Judge Carli Kierny handed down the sentence, CNN reports. Novosti gives the range as 40 years to life, while Informer’s headline speaks of a life sentence.
He was also credited with the 731 days he has already spent in custody. Davis was found guilty of first-degree murder on August 31, when a Las Vegas jury reached its verdict after less than three hours of deliberation. At the start of the trial he waived his right to have a jury set the sentence, so the decision fell to the judge.
What did prosecutors claim?
Prosecutors did not claim that Davis fired the shots himself. The indictment accused him of organizing a revenge attack as a high-ranking gang member. The trigger was a brawl at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, in which Shakur’s entourage beat up Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson.
Davis is the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur’s murder.
How did a verdict come almost three decades later?
For years the case had no breakthrough. The weapon used in the killing was never found, and witnesses, as CNN notes, mostly stayed silent because of the unwritten code of street gangs. Potential physical evidence disappeared over time.
A key part of the case against Davis was his own words. He spoke in interviews, documentaries and podcasts, and in 2019 he published a memoir titled “Compton Street Legend.” In it he gave his version of events and, among other things, wrote:
“I am one of the few living eyewitnesses to Tupac’s murder who also knows the much broader story of the reasons why both Tupac and Biggie (rapper Notorious B.I.G.) were killed.”
That is what Davis wrote in the memoir, Novosti reports.
What happened to Tupac Shakur in 1996?
Shakur was 25 when he was hit by four bullets near the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996. He was one of the biggest stars in American rap at the time. One bullet badly damaged his lung, and doctors spent days trying to save him. He died on September 13, 1996, six days after the attack.
Davis has previously announced that he will appeal the verdict.
