Ex-gang leader gets 40 years to life for rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder

What the report says

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former gang leader long linked to the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, was sentenced on Tuesday in Las Vegas to 40 years to life in prison. Al Jazeera, citing Reuters and the Associated Press, reported that the sentence ended a decades-long case involving the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Shakur, one of hip-hop’s biggest stars.

Davis, 63, had been convicted in August of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors said he was the only surviving person from the car linked to the shooting and argued that he had helped orchestrate the attack after a confrontation earlier that night involving his nephew and Shakur’s entourage. In court, the judge said Shakur’s life had been taken from him and his family, while prosecutors said Davis’s public comments and memoir about the killing helped break open the case.

Shakur was shot in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson fight and died six days later. His death became one of the most famous unsolved crimes in music history for nearly 30 years. Family members of Shakur spoke at sentencing, describing the loss as devastating. Davis briefly addressed the court, requested the return of property seized from his home, and said he planned to appeal.