30yrs Later, Keffe D Sentenced To 40 Years To Life For The Murder Of Tupac Shakur (video)
Thirty years after the death of Tupac Shakur shocked the nation, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of the iconic rap star.
“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” Judge Carli Kierny said before delivering the sentence to Davis. “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, and neither did Las Vegas. Took us 30 years, but at this time, you are going to face justice for what you did on September 7, 1996,” she said. Davis has 731 days of credit for time already served toward his sentence.
Davis, a former leader of the Southside Compton Crips gang, was found guilty of first-degree murder on August 31 for plotting the 1996 killing of the rap mogul near the Las Vegas Strip. He remains the only person ever charged in the death of Shakur, who was 25 and at the height of his career when his life ended.
For nearly three decades, the case remained unsolved: No murder weapon was ever recovered, law enforcement officials struggled with tight-lipped witnesses abiding by the gangs’ “code of the streets,” and as year after year passed, any physical evidence that might have existed slowly faded away.
But as those years went by, a new form of evidence emerged around which prosecutors would eventually build their case: Davis’ own words. He spoke openly in interviews, documentaries and podcasts about his involvement in Shakur’s death and released a 2019 memoir recounting his version of events.
“I’m one of the only living eyewitnesses to Tupac’s killing, who also knows the much larger story around the reasons why both Tupac and Biggie were killed.”
Duane Davis in his memoir, “Compton Street Legend”
“I know the real f**king story,” he wrote.
That decision to write his book effectively negated his proffer agreement with police, prosecutors said, in which he agreed to give up information that couldn’t be used against him in exchange for a potentially lighter sentence for drug charges he was facing at the time.
Kierny ruled Davis’ statements in his memoir, as well as those made in his previous police interviews, were admissible as evidence in the trial.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis is the first and only person to be held legally accountable for the killing of Tupac Shakur.
A 30-year wait for justice in Tupac’s killing ends with a murder conviction in under 3 hours
Prosecutors didn’t argue Davis pulled the trigger; rather, they said as a high-ranking member of the Southside Compton Crips, he orchestrated the shooting in retaliation after a fight between Shakur’s entourage and his nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand. Shakur was shot later that night while riding in a car with Marion “Suge” Knight and died six days later.
Kierny handed down the sentence. At the beginning of the trial, the 63-year-old waived his right to be sentenced by the jury, who convicted him of murder after less than three hours of deliberations.
