BREAKING: Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis jailed for 40 years to life over Tupac’s murder

A Las Vegas judge in the United States on Tuesday jailed Duane “Keffe D” Davis for 40 years to life for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, closing one of the most notorious cases in modern celebrity history.

Judge Carli Kierny ruled that Davis, 63, would be credited for time already served.

A jury convicted Davis in August of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. Prosecutors said then that the state would dismiss the gang-related portion of the charge. Davis had pleaded not guilty.

Shakur, widely regarded as a hip-hop legend, was shot while stopped at a red light in Las Vegas on 7 September 1996 and died six days later. For years, it remained unclear who fired the shots. That changed when Davis began speaking publicly about being inside the white Cadillac that investigators knew had pulled up beside Shakur’s vehicle at the junction that night.

Prosecutors told the court that four men were in the Cadillac and that Davis was the only one still alive when he was arrested in 2023. They said another man, who initially supplied the gun Davis used to shoot Shakur, was also dead.

The prosecution argued that Davis had gone “hunting” for Shakur in retaliation against the rapper and Marion “Suge” Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records. Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal, citing what was for a time Davis’ own account, said Davis shot Shakur after Shakur and Knight had beaten up Davis’ nephew. The shooting also wounded Knight, who was in the targeted vehicle.

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Palal acknowledged during the trial that Davis had altered parts of his account since he first began speaking openly about the shooting. He told jurors, however, that the core details had stayed the same, including Davis’ description of himself as being in the white Cadillac from which the fatal shots were fired.

Davis’ lawyer, Michael Sanft, countered that nothing beyond his client’s own statements placed him in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. He told the jury that no surveillance footage, phone logs or other tangible records were available.

Davis also detailed his role in the shooting in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend”. His attorneys sought to keep the book out of the trial as evidence, but prosecutors rejected that request.

At the sentencing hearing, Davis spoke only briefly. He asked the judge for the return of some belongings police had taken from his home, including his pictures, and said he had nothing more to add.

(CBS News)