Almost three decades after the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, one of the most famous unsolved cases in the history of the United States is coming to court. The trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang, began Monday in Las Vegas and is scheduled to last about a month.
Prosecutors claim that Davis, aged 63, orchestrated the killing of the artist and provided the weapon used in the attack on the night of September 7, 1996, according to AFP, quoted by News.ro.
If convicted, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The hearing began with the selection of jurors, a stage that could last several days.
Tupac Shakur, one of the iconic figures of American hip-hop, was shot in Las Vegas after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match. The artist was 25 years old and at the center of the rivalry between the US West Coast and East Coast rap scenes.
Investigators say the motive for the crime is related to the conflict between the record labels Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records, as well as the rivalry between the gangs that offered them protection. According to the indictment, the conflict escalated after Tupac and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight assaulted Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew, following an altercation at the MGM Grand casino.
Prosecutors say Duane Davis later staged a retaliatory act.
The testimonies that relaunched the investigation
The case remained closed for decades due to a lack of evidence, but the investigation was resumed after the publication, in 2019, of Davis’s memoirs. In the book, he claimed that he was in the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired at Tupac and that he handed the gun to the passengers in the back seat.
The statements, combined with interviews over the years, contributed to his arrest in September 2023.
Currently, however, the former gang leader rejects his own claims and maintains that he is innocent.
“I’m innocent. I’ve never killed anyone“, he stated in an interview with ABC News in March 2025.
“They have no evidence against me. They can’t even prove I was in Las Vegas”he added.
Davis now claims he was in Los Angeles on the night of the murder and claims he never read the memoir published under his name, which he says was romanticized by the book’s co-author.
“I just gave him details about my life. And he did his own investigation and wrote the book on his own”the defendant declared.
P. Diddy’s shadow
The trial also brings back into focus old theories regarding the involvement of influential figures in the music industry. In recently filed court documents, Tupac’s family claims there are other people who have not been held accountable for the rapper’s murder.
Among the items cited are statements attributed to Duane Davis, according to which Sean “P. Diddy” Combs offered him $1 million to assassinate Tupac. Combs, who denies the charges, is currently incarcerated in another case.
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