Trial of alleged Tupac Shakur killer begins after three decades — The Debate
The long‑delayed murder trial of the man accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing opened in Las Vegas on Monday.
The long‑delayed murder trial of the man accused of orchestrating Tupac Shakur's 1996 killing opened in Las Vegas on Monday.
A prosecutor said on Monday that while few have been willing to speak about the 1996 killing of the prominent hip‑hop star, Duane "Keffe D" Davis is the "one person who has a hard time being silent."
"Let us be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation for the beating of his nephew," Binu Palal, Chief Deputy District Attorney, told jurors at the start of Davis' Las Vegas trial. "Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself."
Davis, 63, could receive life in prison if convicted of murder with a deadly weapon and intent to promote a criminal gang. He has pleaded not guilty. His defence lawyer dismissed the prosecution's narrative as "fiction."
Palal showed jurors video of Shakur's entourage attacking Davis' nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, outside the boxing match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, just hours before the shooting on 7 September 1996.
According to the prosecutor, Davis spent the next two hours planning revenge, and Shakur was gunned down "in an act of retaliation."
Shakur remains a cultural icon whose music continues to shape underground rap scenes across Europe, from Berlin to Paris, influencing a new generation of artists. European legal scholars are watching the case as a study in how organised‑crime investigations cross borders. The verdict could also affect how American music‑industry contracts are enforced within EU jurisdictions.
In a 2008 interview with a federal task force investigating the killing of Shakur's rival, the Notorious B.I.G., Davis instead talked about the Shakur shooting. He described handing a gun to men in the backseat of a white Cadillac that fired on a black BMW carrying Shakur and Marion "Suge" Knight.
When prosecutors played audio of Davis describing the moment Shakur was shot, members of Shakur's family, including his stepbrother Maurice "Mopreme" Shakur, listened intently from the audience. Palal said Davis has harboured a visceral hatred for Shakur for decades.
The prosecutor added that Davis talked to the FBI in 1998 and again in 1999, admitting he had been in Las Vegas at the time of the shooting, and that in 2009 he admitted his role in an interview with Las Vegas police.
"And now, 30 years later, we will ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable," Palal said.
The prosecution will also use the 2019 memoir Davis co‑authored, "Compton Street Legend," which the defence fought to keep out of the trial, along with several of the defendant's interviews.
"What they are telling you is presented as fact when it is really fiction," said Davis' attorney Michael Sanft. "There are no facts," he added, noting that Davis was not previously charged because law enforcement believed he was "full of crap."
Sanft also highlighted missing documents in the original investigation and alleged bias, sloppiness and incompleteness in one detective's work.
The drive‑by shooting has long gripped the hip‑hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023. The other three men riding in the Cadillac have all died in the years since.
Garry Dale, a retired Las Vegas police officer, was the first of the 35 to 45 witnesses the prosecution plans to call. He testified that he and another officer stopped Knight and Shakur's car for a missing licence plate, warned them and let them go.
About ten minutes later the officers responded to a shooting call and found EMTs pulling Shakur from the car. Dale said Knight had been grazed by bullets, but told the officers to take care of Shakur.
Dale jumped into the ambulance and asked Shakur who shot him. The retired officer said Shakur replied something like "no, we'll take care of it."
Brent Becker, a former Las Vegas homicide detective, testified that Knight appeared at a police interview with attorneys, which he found odd because Knight was a victim. Becker said Knight's interview seemed rehearsed and that he thought Knight was lying.
Becker added that it was difficult to get other witnesses to talk and that at the time investigators were leaning on Davis, Anderson, Deandrae "Freaky" Smith and Terry "Bubble Up" Brown as the men in the Cadillac, but no living witnesses could identify them.