Duane Davis receives 40 years to life for Tupac Shakur murder

A Las Vegas judge sentenced Duane “Keffe D” Davis to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, bringing a sentence in a case that went unsolved for nearly three decades.

Judge Carli Kierny said the sentence includes a mandatory 20-year enhancement for profiting from the murder, NBC News reported. Davis, 63, will receive credit for time already served, Judge Kierny said, according to CBS News. He is the only person convicted in Shakur’s killing.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” Kierny told Davis, according to NBC News. “You don’t get to take his very life, his whole life, and just walk away from it, especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.”

Shakur was shot in a drive-by attack in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, and died six days later. He was 25. Marion “Suge” Knight, who was in the car with him, was also shot but survived.

Prosecutors said Davis orchestrated the attack and supplied the gun. They linked the shooting to a scuffle that night between Shakur and Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, NBC News reported. Anderson denied involvement in Shakur’s killing and died in an unrelated shooting in 1998, according to the BBC.

Accounts of the prosecution’s allegation about who fired the shots differ. NBC News and the BBC reported that Davis was not accused of firing them. CBS News reported that prosecutor Binu Palal said Davis shot Shakur, citing an account Davis had given. All three outlets reported that prosecutors placed Davis inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired.

Davis’ own words were central to the case. He described his role in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” and in media interviews. The BBC reported that he had also discussed his involvement in a secret 2008 police interview under an agreement shielding him from prosecution. His later book and interviews voided that protection, the BBC reported, allowing the police interview to be used at trial.

Defense attorneys argued that Davis’ public accounts were exaggerations intended to sell books. His attorney Michael Sanft said no evidence beyond Davis’ statements placed him in Las Vegas that night, CBS News reported. Davis pleaded not guilty and has said he will appeal, according to the BBC.

At sentencing, Shakur’s younger sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, called her brother “a father figure to me” and said she believed Davis deserved the maximum sentence, NBC News reported. Palal asked the judge for the maximum, pointing to Davis’ previous convictions and public boasting. Davis declined to address Shakur’s family, saying, “I’m good,” according to NBC News. CBS News reported that he briefly asked for belongings seized from his home, including pictures, to be returned.

The outlets differ on when the jury convicted Davis: NBC News and CBS News reported August, while the BBC reported September. NBC News said jurors deliberated for less than three hours.