Thirty years after, former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, appeared in court Monday for his trial over the alleged murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down in Las Vegas.
He is the first person to be brought to trial in the case.
He is charged on a one count charge of murder with a deadly weapon in the 1996 killing of the hip-hop legend.
Opening statements kicked off with prosecutors calling Shakur’s death “an act of revenge.” They told jurors that Davis harbored “visceral anger” toward Tupac for years and acted after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was involved in a fight with the rapper hours earlier at a Mike Tyson fight.
“Let’s be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal.
“Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself.”
Prosecutors are leaning heavily on Davis’ own words, pointing to a memoir he co-authored and past interviews where he allegedly detailed the night of the shooting.
The defense pushed back hard. Attorney Michael Sanft called the book “fiction” designed to sell copies, and at one point flashed a PowerPoint slide to jurors that simply read “Bulls-t.”
“What facts will they have after 30 years?” Sanft asked. “Keffe D was known to do this.”
The jury heard from four witnesses on day one, including the officer who pulled over Marion “Suge” Knight and Tupac the night of the shooting, and a woman who was in the car ahead of them when shots rang out. Several of Shakur’s family members, including his sister, were in the courtroom.
Tupac was 25 when he was shot on September 7, 1996, after leaving the Tyson bout. He died six days later. Prosecutors allege Davis was the “on-ground, on-site commander” who ordered the hit and that the attack was meant to avenge his nephew.
On day two, the court played more audio from a 1997 interview between Davis and former LAPD detective Fred Miller, who had questioned Davis about both Tupac’s murder and the 1997 killing of Notorious B.I.G.
Davis, dressed in a navy suit and blue tie, has pleaded ‘not guilty.’ His team argues the decades-long investigation is flawed and that no one can corroborate the claims.
The trial is expected to delve deeper into Davis’ alleged confession, gang ties, and the events that led to one of music’s most infamous unsolved crimes, now finally being tested in court.
