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Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former gang leader convicted of orchestrating the 1996 murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, has been sentenced to at least 40 years in prison.
Davis, 63, was found guilty by a jury in September of one count of murder with a deadly weapon for Shakur’s death.
Tupac was killed on September 7, 1996, after suffering a gunshot wound from a drive-by shooting. The rapper died six days after being put on life support. He was in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight.
Davis, one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was arrested in September 2024. His trial began in August in a Las Vegas court — 30 years after the fatal shooting and a week after jury selection.
At the start of the hearing, Davis pleaded not guilty to a murder charge involving the use of a deadly weapon in connection with gang activity.
The jurors then deliberated for about three hours, after which they found Davis guilty of murder with the use of a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.
In their verdict, the twelve jurors agreed that Davis was guilty of orchestrating the murder of Tupac.
“Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon,” the foreperson of the jury announced to the court.
When Carli Kierny, the presiding judge, asked Davis if he had anything to say on Tuesday, he replied: “I’m good. I’m gonna appeal this case for sure”.
Before handing down the sentence, Kierny told him: “You don’t get to take a man from his family.
“You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him, and just walk away from it. Especially when that man is Tupac Shakur. The world never forgot about him and his death.”
