A Las Vegas jury has found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur, marking the first conviction in a case that remained unresolved for nearly three decades.
The 63-year-old Davis was convicted of murder with the use of a deadly weapon following three hours of jury deliberation. He now faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
The verdict sparked emotional reactions inside the courtroom. Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, broke into tears upon hearing the decision, while Davis’s son sat covering his face.
During closing arguments, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis acquired a firearm and actively hunted down Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight after the pair assaulted Davis’s nephew earlier that evening.
Prosecution lawyers acknowledged that Davis’s descriptions of the event shifted across different interviews over the years, but argued that key facts remained unchanged. In particular, prosecutors highlighted that Davis consistently placed himself inside the white Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired.
Defense attorney Michael Sanft urged the jury to consider the lack of physical evidence linking his client directly to the scene of the crime. Sanft argued that prosecutors failed to produce surveillance footage, phone records, or independent evidence proving Davis was in Las Vegas or inside the vehicle on the night of September 7, 1996.
Despite defense objections, the jury returned a guilty verdict, concluding a high-profile trial that brings legal closure to one of the most famous unsolved cases in music history.
