The trial and conviction of Duane 'Keffe D' Davis for Tupac Shakur's killing

The case against Davis came into view on July 17, 2023, when Las Vegas police searched a home in Henderson, Nevada, that public records tied to his wife.^[8][5] The warrant named him and sought "items that tend to show evidence of motive and/or the identity of the perpetrator."^[6] On September 29, police arrested him near his home, and a grand jury indictment charged him with murder with use of a deadly weapon.^[7][3] Police and prosecutors said he had orchestrated the shooting and given his nephew the gun.^[9] After two delays, he pleaded not guilty on November 2, represented by public defenders the judge appointed when his bid to hire a private lawyer failed. The judge told him prosecutors were not seeking the death penalty.^[10][11]

The trial was postponed more than once while Davis fought his detention and the charges. In December 2023, prosecutors asked the judge to hold him until trial, saying that recordings of his jail phone calls showed witnesses could be at risk and that a list of witnesses had been given to his family.^[12][13] His lawyers said he was in poor health and no danger to the community, On January 9, 2024, the judge set bail at $750,000 with house arrest and electronic monitoring, ahead of a trial then set for that June.^[13][14] His lawyers asked the court in January 2025 to dismiss the charges,^[15] and in February the judge moved the trial from March 2025 to February 2026, citing new developments raised by the defense, whose motion suggested that someone else may have orchestrated the shooting.^[16] In March he gave his first interview since his arrest, from jail, and said he was innocent.^[17] In July 2025, after the judge upheld the charges, Davis asked the Nevada Supreme Court to dismiss them.^[18]

The trial began with jury selection on August 10, 2026, and opening statements a week later.^[19][20] Prosecutors said Shakur was killed to avenge an attack by his entourage on Davis's nephew hours earlier at the MGM Grand, after a Mike Tyson fight.^[21] "Let's be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger," a prosecutor told jurors, calling him the "one person who has a hard time being silent."^[22] Davis's own words, from police interviews and his memoir, formed the backbone of the prosecution's case.^[23] Jurors heard a 2008 recording in which he told detectives that Anderson fired the shots and that he was in the car with him.^[24] Davis now says he lied in that interview to gain leverage while facing a possible life sentence on drug charges,^[25] and ten days before the trial he told a television station that he was not in Nevada that night.^[24] Prosecutors rested on August 26 after calling 24 witnesses, and the defense rested the next day after three former Las Vegas police officers testified.^[23]

In closing arguments on August 31, the defense said that prosecutors had presented no independent evidence placing Davis in Las Vegas that night and that his past accounts were fiction, told for protection and money.^[26][2] Prosecutors said he had no reason to lie about the murder.^[2] The jury found him guilty that day of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang.^[2] "I would like to appeal this matter," Davis told the court.^[4] On October 13, Judge Carli Kierny sentenced him to 40 years to life, with credit for 731 days already served. "You don't get to take a man from his family," she said.^[1] Michael Sanft, the Las Vegas lawyer who defended Davis at trial, died in November at 55.^[27]