Duane “Keffe D” Davis sentenced to 40 years to life for Tupac Shakur murder
publishers 138articles 156first reported 13 Oct, 06:15 UTCdeveloping since 13 Oct · 10 editions
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.
A jury found Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. Prosecutors said he organized the retaliatory attack after Shakur and members of his entourage assaulted Davis’s nephew at the MGM Grand on September 7, 1996. Hours later, a white Cadillac carrying Davis and three other men pulled alongside the vehicle in which Shakur was riding. Shakur was shot and died six days later at age 25. Davis was not accused of firing the fatal shots, but prosecutors argued that he supplied the gun and directed the group.
The case remained unsolved for nearly three decades. Prosecutors relied heavily on Davis’s accounts in media interviews and his 2019 memoir, *Compton Street Legend*, in which he described being in the Cadillac and acknowledged his role in the events. Davis is the only person convicted in the killing.
At sentencing, Judge Carli Kierny told Davis that he could not take a man’s life and “just walk away from it,” adding that the world had never forgotten Shakur. Shakur’s siblings asked the court to impose the maximum sentence and described the lasting effect of his death on their family.
Davis declined to express remorse and said he plans to appeal his conviction.
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Written from 8 articles, 7 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 36 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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