Guilty Verdict: Davis Convicted 28 Years After Tupac's Murder

(MENAFN) Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, a jury has convicted Duane "Keffe D" Davis of his murder — the first conviction ever secured in the long-unsolved case. After a trial spanning several weeks, jurors took less than three hours to reach their decision.

Davis, now 63, faces a possible life sentence after being convicted of murder with a deadly weapon; he had maintained a not-guilty plea throughout the proceedings. Prosecutors said the motive traced back to a beating Davis' nephew suffered earlier on the night of the killing. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told the court that Davis then armed himself and "went hunting" for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight.

According to Palal, even as Davis offered shifting versions of events over the years, one detail never changed — his own placement inside the white Cadillac used in the drive-by shooting. "The core facts remain. The material facts remain," Palal told jurors.

But defense attorney Michael Sanft disputed that narrative, telling the court that no independent evidence — including gaps in surveillance video and phone records — actually put Davis in Las Vegas or inside the vehicle that night. "They have nothing in this case that says that man was here in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996," Sanft argued.

Testimony unfolded over nine days, with the 16-member jury hearing from 24 witnesses for the prosecution and three for the defense.

Shakur was 25 when he was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, as a white Cadillac drew up beside his car at a Las Vegas intersection. He died of his wounds six days later, while Knight survived the attack.

While prosecutors said Davis helped plan the shooting and supplied the gun, they did not claim he was the one who fired it. "Who fired is not the question," Palal said, insisting the attack was calculated rather than spur-of-the-moment: "It's a plan, not an impulse."

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