By Steve Gorman and Luc Cohen
LAS VEGAS, Oct 13 (Reuters) – A former gang leader was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas, capping the prosecution of a long-unsolved murder that shaped the golden age of rap music.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, found guilty by a jury in August of first-degree murder, showed no emotion as he was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 20 years to life — one for murder, one for use of a deadly weapon — during an hour-long proceeding in a Las Vegas courtroom.
Shackled at the waist and dressed in blue prison garb, he argued briefly with the judge over how much credit he was due for time already served but said little else during the hearing.
When given the opportunity to formally address the court for the last time, he said: “I just want my stuff back that they took out of my house,” referring to evidence removed from his residence by investigators.
Pressed by Judge Carli Kierny if he had anything more to add before she pronounced sentence, Davis replied, “I’m good. I’m going to appeal this case, for sure.” His lawyer, Michael Sanft, also vowed an appeal.
LEGACY OF VIOLENCE
Until Davis’ 2023 arrest, the killing of Shakur, shot in the passenger seat of an SUV driven by his record executive, Marion “Suge” Knight, had stood for nearly three decades as one of America’s most notorious cold cases.
The murder, which silenced one of rap’s most commercially successful and influential artists, heightened the image of violence permeating 1990s hip-hop culture while stoking the infamous East Coast-West Coast “gangsta” rap feud of the era.
Despite the murder conviction of Davis, the only person ever charged in connection with Shakur’s killing, the question of who pulled the trigger in the fatal shooting of the 25-year-old rap legend has never been conclusively decided.
Shakur, who became arguably more popular in death than in life, was best known for raw lyrics laced with violence, sex and profanity describing life in the ghetto. His fourth studio album “All Eyez on Me,” released months before his murder, celebrated his own outlaw image. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
In a tearful victim-impact statement delivered in court on Tuesday, the slain rapper’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, 51, said their mother “raised him to be a human rights activist” and tried to instill in him a belief that he could change the world for the better.
“He believed her,” Sekyiwa Shakur, dressed in black, told the judge. “He went out in the world to do that. And I believe he would have done it.”
‘THE WORLD NEVER FORGOT’
Davis was tried and convicted for masterminding the murder to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur and members of the rapper’s entourage inside the MGM Grand casino on the Las Vegas Strip on September 7, 1996.
Authorities said they long believed Davis was involved in Shakur’s killing but lacked sufficient evidence to charge him.
That changed when he went public with his story in media appearances and a memoir that, along with tapes of his secret meetings with investigators, formed the bulk of the prosecution’s murder case.
In his book, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis himself wrote he was considered a suspect in the murders of both Shakur and Christopher Wallace, a rival rapper.
Addressing Davis on Tuesday, Kierny said his assertions that he had changed since the 1990s and moved on fell short.
“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” Kierny said, referring to Shakur. “The world never forgot about him.”
FATAL SHOOTING SPARKED BY CASINO BRAWL
The clash at the casino stemmed from hostility between two Los Angeles-area street gangs — the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was the self-described leader, and Mob Piru, which was associated with Shakur, Knight, and their music label, Death Row Records.
Members of both groups were in Las Vegas to see a world heavyweight title boxing match that night between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.
Within hours of the casino brawl, Davis ushered his nephew and two other associates into a white Cadillac and went looking for Shakur and Knight, determined to settle scores, according to an account Davis later gave police in an unrelated investigation and that prosecutors cited during his murder trial.
Davis said he passed a gun to the two men seated behind him in the Cadillac, one of whom opened fire through the window when they caught up with, and pulled alongside, Knight and Shakur’s vehicle in traffic.
Shakur was struck four times and died in a hospital six days later. Knight, who suffered a minor injury from a bullet fragment that grazed his head, is now serving a 28-year prison term on an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction.
While Davis was never accused of actually firing the shots that killed Shakur — Nevada law allows someone to be charged with murder as a participant in the crime — prosecutors have never named a suspected gunman.
All three other men in the Cadillac with Davis that night have since died.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Daniel Wallis and Chris Reese)
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