Duane Davis Jailed 40 Years Over Tupac Shakur’s Murder
Former American gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the 1996 murder of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur.
Davis, 63, was sentenced on Tuesday after a jury found him guilty in September of murder with a deadly weapon over the drive-by shooting that killed the hip-hop star in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, the BBC reported.
Prosecutors accused Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips street gang, of orchestrating the killing and supplying the firearm used in the attack, although he was not the gunman.
His nephew, Orlando Anderson, was identified by prosecutors as the person who opened fire on Shakur. Anderson denied involvement before his death in an unrelated shooting in 1998.
Davis, who has vowed to appeal his conviction, repeatedly acknowledged being inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired. His statements about the killing also featured prominently in the prosecution’s case.
In a secret police interview in 2008, Davis reportedly disclosed details of his involvement in Shakur’s death while discussing the murder of fellow rapper Christopher Wallace, popularly known as The Notorious B.I.G. The agreement was intended to protect him from prosecution.
However, his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, and subsequent media interviews in which he discussed the killing undermined that protection, allowing prosecutors to use the interview as evidence at trial.
Davis’ defence team argued that his accounts were fabricated or exaggerated to boost book sales and attract publicity.
Shakur was 25 when he was killed. Widely regarded as one of hip-hop’s most influential artists, he sold more than 75 million records worldwide.
His murder remained one of America’s most high-profile unsolved cases for nearly three decades, spawning numerous theories about the circumstances surrounding his death.
Davis’ conviction marked the first in the long-running case.
