Ex-gang boss found guilty in 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur

What the report says

A Las Vegas jury has found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of murder with a deadly weapon in the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, according to Nile Post’s reporting based on the trial outcome. The verdict marks the first conviction in a case that has remained one of hip-hop’s best-known unsolved murders for nearly 30 years.

Prosecutors said Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, did not fire the shots himself but arranged the attack and provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting on 7 September 1996. They argued the killing was retaliation after a fight involving Shakur and members of Davis’s circle earlier that night in Las Vegas. The court also heard that Davis had previously spoken publicly about being in the Cadillac from which the shots were fired, and that those statements were used as evidence at trial.

Shakur was 25 when he was killed at the height of his career, and his death became tied to wider tensions in the 1990s between East Coast and West Coast rap scenes and gang rivalries. Davis’s defence argued that his accounts were exaggerated or made for attention and profit, but jurors returned a guilty verdict after brief deliberations.

The case drew emotional reactions in court from Shakur’s relatives and from fans outside the courthouse. Sentencing was scheduled for 13 October, and Davis said he would appeal.