01/09/2026
โKeffe Dโ Found Guilty of Tupac Shakurโs Murder
By Ezra Tshisa
Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was gunned down in Las Vegas, a jury has found Duane โKeffe Dโ Davis guilty of the rapperโs murder.
The 63-year-old Davis was convicted of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the September 1996 killing. He could face life in prison. He had pleaded not guilty.
The jury reached its verdict in less than three hours after a weekslong trial.
Prosecutors argued that Davis organised the attack and supplied the gun used in the shooting, although they did not accuse him of pulling the trigger.
โHe went huntingโ for Tupac and Marion โSugeโ Knight, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors, saying the attack was retaliation after Davisโ nephew, Orlando โBaby Laneโ Anderson, was beaten earlier that night.
โWho fired is not the question,โ Palal said. He argued the attack was deliberate, telling jurors: โItโs a plan, not an impulse.โ
Davisโ lawyer, Michael Sanft, maintained there was insufficient evidence independently placing his client at the scene.
โThey have nothing in this case that says that man was here in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996,โ Sanft argued.
Tupac, 25, was shot multiple times while sitting in a car at a Las Vegas intersection on September 7, 1996. He died six days later. Knight was also wounded but survived.
Davis later admitted in interviews that he was inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired and said he handed a gun to men in the back seat. He never identified the shooter.
After the verdict, Tupacโs sister, Sekyiwa โSetโ Shakur, broke down in court. The conviction marks the first in one of hip-hopโs most notorious murder cases, bringing a decades-long investigation to a historic turning point. ๐ค๐ค๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐บ๐ธ๐บ๐ธ๐บ๐ธ๐บ๐ธ
