A Clark County, Nevada jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon on Monday, August 31, 2026, for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. Jurors reached the verdict after deliberating less than three hours, capping a trial that had run for about two weeks in Las Vegas. Davis is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s death, and this is the first conviction obtained in the case in nearly 30 years.
Shakur, 25, was shot in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, and died of his injuries six days later. The killing had remained officially unsolved for almost three decades until this verdict.
Key facts
- Verdict: Guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon
- Defendant: Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63
- Verdict date: Monday, August 31, 2026, after less than three hours of jury deliberation
- Victim: Tupac Shakur, 25, shot September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas; died six days later
- Trial length: About two weeks, at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas
- Sentencing date: October 13, 2026, before Judge Carli Kierny
- Maximum sentence: Up to life in prison
What the jury decided
The jury convicted Davis of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon; the murder charge itself included language that the killing was committed with intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. Prosecutors announced Monday night that the state would drop its pursuit of that gang enhancement because of witness logistics, meaning it adds nothing to whatever sentence Davis receives.
Prosecutors did not argue that Davis fired the fatal shots himself. Instead, their theory was that Davis acted as the “shot caller” — what prosecutors described as the on-ground, on-site commander — for a South Side Compton Crips group that carried out the shooting as retaliation, after Shakur’s entourage assaulted Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand hours earlier that night, following a Mike Tyson fight. Prosecutors said Davis handed the gunman the murder weapon but did not pull the trigger himself. That gunman, according to Davis’s own account, was his nephew, Orlando Anderson.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal delivered closing arguments for the prosecution, while defense attorney Michael Sanft, representing Davis, countered that the state’s case rested only on Davis’s own past statements and lacked corroborating evidence — no surveillance footage, phone records or forensic evidence placing Davis at the scene. The defense also argued Davis may not even have been in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting, and that his self-incriminating statements over the years were embellishment made for profit or to avoid prosecution on unrelated narcotics charges. Jurors rejected that argument. The prosecution’s own case also centered on Davis’s past statements rather than new physical evidence — the 2008 police interview and 2019 memoir in which Davis placed himself in the car during the shooting.
Why Davis was on trial without pulling the trigger
Much of the prosecution’s case relied on Davis’s own words. In a 2008 police interview and again in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis placed himself in the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired and said he passed a loaded .40-caliber Glock to his nephew, Orlando Anderson, in the back seat. According to Davis’s account, Anderson then fired at the BMW carrying Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight.
That account of who pulled the trigger comes from Davis himself, not from an independent witness or forensic evidence, and prosecutors did not charge Anderson. Anderson denied involvement in the shooting before he died in an unrelated shooting in 1998.
Suge Knight was in the car, but his trial testimony was not confirmed
Knight was driving the BMW Shakur was riding in when the Cadillac pulled alongside near Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in Las Vegas. Knight was wounded but survived; Shakur was struck multiple times. Knight, the only surviving eyewitness to the shooting itself, was on the list of potential witnesses but publicly said he did not want to testify, comparing it to “snitching” and saying the case “has nothing to do with me.” Davis’s defense questioned at trial why prosecutors never subpoenaed him. Knight is currently serving a 28-year sentence for an unrelated 2015 killing.
Davis was arrested more than 27 years after the shooting
Davis was arrested outside his Henderson, Nevada home on September 29, 2023, more than 27 years after the shooting, and a Clark County grand jury indicted him on the murder charge with the gang enhancement. Jury selection for the trial began August 10, 2026; a jury of six men and 10 women, plus four alternates, was seated August 13. Testimony began around August 17 at the Clark County Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, and the case went to the jury on August 31.
Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, and other family members were in the courtroom for the verdict and were seen crying and hugging prosecutors afterward.
What happens next
After the verdict was read, Davis addressed the court directly, telling the judge, “I would like to appeal this matter.” He also asked for his “stuff back” and briefly raised his fist toward the audience as he exited the courtroom. That was only a statement of intent; the available reporting does not confirm that a formal appeal has been filed. Davis, 63, faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for October 13, 2026, before Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny.
The verdict resolves only the case against Davis in Shakur’s killing. The 1997 murder of Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace remains a separate, officially unsolved case, and nothing in this verdict or trial addresses it.