Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a 63-year-old former Compton gang member long connected to Tupac Shakur’s 1996 death, has been found guilty of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and a gang enhancement. A Las Vegas jury of 10 women and six men delivered the verdict on Monday after a trial that lasted about two weeks. The jury reached their decision in just a few hours. Davis was not accused of firing the gun.
Nevada law allows someone who helps commit a murder to be held just as responsible as the person who pulls the trigger. Prosecutors focused on this idea, arguing that Davis was not the shooter but the person who planned the killing. As a leader of the South Side Compton Crips, they said he set the plan in motion and directed it from inside the car where the shots were fired. Davis is still the only person ever charged in this case, which remained open for almost thirty years.
The verdict had an immediate impact in the courtroom. Sekyiwa Shakur, Tupac’s sister, cried when the decision was announced. Davis’s son hid his face. Davis stood quietly as the verdict was read, then raised his fist to the gallery as he left. District Judge Carli Kierny ordered Davis to remain in custody until his sentencing on October 13, when he could receive a life sentence. His lawyers have said they plan to appeal.
What the Prosecution Argued
BREAKING: Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been found guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon in connection with the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, nearly 30 years after the rapper was fatally shot in Las Vegas.
Jurors deliberated for about 90 minutes before reaching… pic.twitter.com/mw5wLEhXbb
— XXL Magazine (@XXL) September 1, 2026
The prosecution focused on a revenge motive and relied heavily on Keffe D’s own words. Clark County prosecutors said an attack on Davis’s nephew earlier that night was the event that led Davis, as a gang leader, to order and organize the shooting. There was little forensic evidence after nearly 30 years, so the case depended mostly on what Davis had said in interviews and in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” where he described his involvement in detail. Prosecutors used his statements as their main evidence.
About twenty prosecution witnesses testified, while the defense called three. Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued that Davis’s stories over the years did not prove he committed murder and asked the jury to find him not guilty, saying it was “the only verdict that makes sense in this case.” The jury, however, reached the opposite decision in just a few hours.
What Keffe D’s Verdict Means for Hip-Hop’s Most Mythologized Case
Retired LAPD detective Greg Kading, who helped convict Duane “Keffe D” Davis in Tupac Shakur’s murder, tells @JesseWeberLive he’s confident the same breakthrough is possible in the still-unsolved 1997 murder of Notorious B.I.G.
More: https://t.co/W6XAQf7WAU pic.twitter.com/4XOE63lb0b— NewsNation (@NewsNation) September 1, 2026
Tupac Shakur was 25 when he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996. He died six days later. His death, along with the killing of the Notorious B.I.G. six months later, became the most famous unsolved story in hip-hop. These two murders, and the East Coast versus West Coast rivalry around them, have influenced how a whole generation sees hip-hop’s most important decade.
The Notorious B.I.G.’s name came up often during Keffe D’s trial, showing how closely the two deaths are linked in people’s minds. No one has ever been charged in B.I.G.’s case. The verdict for Davis does not answer every question or end the myths that have grown since 1996. But it does bring a legal ending to a story that stayed open for almost thirty years. Davis will be sentenced on October 13 and could face life in prison.
Featured image: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department/Wikimedia Commons
