Duane Davis sentenced to 40 years in Tupac Shakur murder trial

· DW

Former Los Angeles gang leader Duane "Keffe D" Davis was found guilty of ordering the killing of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur

Duane "Keffe D" Davis was sentenced by a Las Vegas court on Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur over 30 years ago. 

Shakur was wounded in a drive-by shooting on September 7, 1996, and died in a hospital six days later at the age of 25.

Davis, 63, was convicted in August of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.

"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," Judge Carli Kierny told a Las Vegas court while handing down the sentence. 

What happened the night of the shooting?

On the night of the shooting, the rapper and his entourage got into a brawl with members of a rival Los Angeles street gang at the MGM Grand Casino during a boxing match. One of those beaten in the brawl was Davis's cousin.

Davis said he sought retaliation, and hours after the fight while riding around Las Vegas in a Cadillac, he located Shakur at a red light in the passenger seat of a BMW.

Davis handed the gun to someone sitting in the back seat of the Cadillac and ordered that person to shoot Shakur.

Tupac Shakur was killed at 25 during the height of his career as a hip hop artistImage: Death Row Records/dpa/AFP/picture alliance

The question of who actually pulled the trigger has never been conclusively decided. Davis is the only person who was in the Cadillac that evening who is still alive.

The killing went unsolved for years until Davis gave interviews and wrote about his role in the shooting in a 2019 tell-all memoir.

Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Tuesday that Davis was trying to profit off the killing, and deserved the maximum sentence.

Davis' lawyer said he plans to appeal the verdict.

Shakur was an award-winning rap artist, activist and actor who sold over 75 million records worldwide, many posthumously. 

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Edited by: Wesley Dockery