The man accused of orchestrating the murder of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur — one of the entertainment industry’s most captivating crimes — was found guilty by a Nevada jury.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, learned his fate in a Las Vegas courtroom on Monday after about two weeks of trial, as Shakur’s emotional family members passed tissues around and embraced, the New York Times reported.
The conviction of Davis, a former high-ranking “shot caller” in a Los Angeles chapter of the Crips gang, marked the first person to face justice for Shakur’s murder, which went down on a Las Vegas street on the night of Sept. 7, 1996.
Shakur, a pioneer of the burgeoning rap scene, was driving in a car when another pulled up alongside and blasted him with a hail of bullets. He died days later at 25.
Davis was not accused of shooting the gun which killed Shakur, but prosecutors argued he gave it to the gunman — long presumed to be his nephew Orlando Anderson, who died in a gang shootout two years after the murder — and orchestrated the entire attack.
Tupac murder suspect couldn’t stop bragging about rapper’s killing, prosecutor says: ‘Tell him you hear him’
Former Compton gangster ‘Mob James’ refuses to rat out old enemy in Tupac Shakur murder trial
They came to that conclusion largely from Davis’ own words — he apparently owned up to it while trying to dodge potential charges in 2008, and later detailed the entire plot in a 2019 memoir that ended up leading straight to his 2023 arrest.
Davis’ defense, however, argued those admissions were pure falsehoods — with attorney Michael Sanft characterizing the memoir as historical fiction, even going so far to compare it to the movie “Titanic.”
“Has anybody seen the documentary called ‘Titanic,’ with Jack and Rose?” Sanft jibbed during closing statements.
A mug shot of Duane Davis is displayed during closing arguments in the Duane Davis murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Monday, August 31, 2026. The trial of the former gang leader accused of orchestrating the murder of Shakur began on August 10.
But prosecutors argued Davis’ own statements were just the icing on the cake — saying the case was “drenched with circumstantial evidence” placing him in the middle of the crime.
His nephew had been beaten up by Shakur — said to be affiliated with a rival Blood gang — just hours before the killing, which prosecutors argued necessitated a violent response by unspoken gangland rules.
“That was the nature of the gang life in the 1990s in Compton – you had no choice, you could not go back to Compton after being beaten publicly,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said during his closing arguments.
That response was organized by an enraged Davis, who Palal said “got a gun and went hunting for Tupac Shakur.”
The jury ultimately found Davis guilty of murder in the killing of the rap superstar, a conviction that could potentially see him face life in prison.
Judge Carli Kierney handed down the guilty verdict and said that Davis will be held without bail until his sentencing on Oct. 13.
Just before he was taken away, Davis asked the judge if he could “get his stuff back,” including phones and jewelry, and vowed that he plans to “appeal this matter.”