Keffe D Gets 40 Years to Life for Tupac Shakur’s 1996 Murder
(MENAFN) A Nevada judge sentenced Duane “Keffe D” Davis to 40 years to life in prison Tuesday for orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap star Tupac Shakur, closing out one of music’s most notorious cold cases, according to the news media.
Judge Carli Kierny imposed the term in Las Vegas. A 12-person jury had convicted Davis of first-degree murder after a trial that ran several weeks in August.
Shakur was hit multiple times on Sept. 7, 1996, as he rode in a black BMW alongside music executive Marion “Suge” Knight. A white Cadillac drew up beside the car at a Las Vegas intersection, and shots rang out. Shakur died six days later. Knight survived.
Prosecutors said Davis planned the attack as payback for a brawl earlier that night at a Las Vegas casino involving his nephew, Orlando Anderson. Their case leaned heavily on Davis’ own accounts of the shooting, drawn from media interviews, podcasts and a 2019 memoir.
“The strength of our case was Mr. Davis,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after the verdict, referring to Davis’ public statements about the shooting.
The defense countered that nothing placed Davis in Las Vegas when the shots were fired, and that he invented his accounts to make money.
Davis is the only person ever charged over Shakur’s death. Anderson, whom prosecutors tied to the casino fight, died in a gang shooting in 1998.
Davis gave up his right to a jury recommendation on sentencing, and prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty. Davis said he plans to appeal the verdict.
Judge Carli Kierny imposed the term in Las Vegas. A 12-person jury had convicted Davis of first-degree murder after a trial that ran several weeks in August.
Shakur was hit multiple times on Sept. 7, 1996, as he rode in a black BMW alongside music executive Marion “Suge” Knight. A white Cadillac drew up beside the car at a Las Vegas intersection, and shots rang out. Shakur died six days later. Knight survived.
Prosecutors said Davis planned the attack as payback for a brawl earlier that night at a Las Vegas casino involving his nephew, Orlando Anderson. Their case leaned heavily on Davis’ own accounts of the shooting, drawn from media interviews, podcasts and a 2019 memoir.
“The strength of our case was Mr. Davis,” Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after the verdict, referring to Davis’ public statements about the shooting.
The defense countered that nothing placed Davis in Las Vegas when the shots were fired, and that he invented his accounts to make money.
Davis is the only person ever charged over Shakur’s death. Anderson, whom prosecutors tied to the casino fight, died in a gang shooting in 1998.
Davis gave up his right to a jury recommendation on sentencing, and prosecutors did not pursue the death penalty. Davis said he plans to appeal the verdict.
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