Man convicted in 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur sentenced to 40 years to life in prison
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Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis was convicted earlier this year for his role in the death of the hip-hop icon, bringing to a close one of the genre’s longest mysteries.
A Las Vegas judge sentenced Duane “Keffe D” Davis to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday, months after Davis was convicted in relation to the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
During impact statements, members of the Shakur family reiterated that his loss was not only generational for rap fans, but their personal grief of losing a family member.
“I do believe that when you take a life like that, you deserve every minute, every minute of the maximum amount of punishment, time to sit down and contemplate what you’ve done to this world, not just to me,” Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur said.
Davis was found guilty nearly 30 years to the day that Shakur was shot in a drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas Strip following a Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Shakur died from his injuries six days later. He was the lone individual charged in connection with the killing, as the other three individuals who were in the car with him, including who many believe was the alleged triggerman, have all died.
“At this time, you are going to face justice for what you did,” Judge Carli Kierny said during sentencing, reminding the former Los Angeles gang member that he would not just “walk away” from taking a man’s life.
In the years following the shooting, Davis continued to tell a consistent account of the events that preceded and led up to the shooting. From YouTube interviews to police interviews and in his own self-published memoir, Davis routinely admitted to being the individual prosecutors determined was the “shot caller” in one of hip-hop’s most infamous incidents.
The 63-year-old Davis plans to appeal his conviction.
His lawyers argued that the case was circumstantial and that he was lying about his involvement in the murder and that there was no concrete evidence to actually place him in Las Vegas the night of the shooting or in the white Cadillac from where the fatal shots that eventually killed Shakur were fired.
Prosecutors offered a different account of events.
“I beat the streets, I beat the Feds, and I beat cancer,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo quoted Davis’ own words to the jury in his closing argument. “Now, he’s trying to beat 12 of you… Mr. Davis is attempting to escape responsibility for a crime everybody knows he committed, even him… End of the day, hold him accountable for the crime he committed.”
A jury agreed, as Davis’ continued desire to retell the story of the night Shakur was shot in Las Vegas, his involvement and continued public statements revived interest in the case. It took jurors less than three hours to deliberate to find him guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon. According to Nevada state law, someone who helps another person commit murder can be convicted of the crime.