Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 63, is set to go on trial in Las Vegas on one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Tupac Shakur’s killing, and Clark County District Court is now the stage where the state will try to turn a decades-old death into a courtroom narrative. Jury selection begins Monday before Judge Carli Kierny, and the trial is scheduled to last about a month.
Who Pays for the Delay
Tupac Shakur’s killing has sat unresolved for decades. That’s the real backdrop here: a famous death, a long cold case, and a legal system that only now is dragging the matter back into public view after years of silence. Shakur, who also went by the stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was shot in Las Vegas on Sept. 7, 1996, while riding in a black BMW with music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on their way to Club 662, where Shakur was scheduled to perform. A white Cadillac pulled up beside them, gunfire erupted, Shakur was shot multiple times in the passenger seat and died six days later. Knight survived.
The case went cold until recent years, when public statements and a tell-all memoir from Davis revived it. Davis was a leader of South Side Compton Crips at the time of Shakur’s death. He was arrested in 2023 and pleaded not guilty. The machinery of prosecution has finally caught up, but only after the people closest to the violence have spent years living with the consequences.
What the State Says Happened
Prosecutors are not arguing that Davis pulled the trigger. They plan to prove that he made the calls that led to Shakur’s death and provided the gun used to shoot Shakur. Davis is the co-author of the memoir “Compton Street Legends,” which describes his exact role in the shooting. The book says Davis obtained a handgun from an associate and tossed it into the back seat of the Cadillac but does not say who fired the fatal shots.
That’s the shape of the case: not just one gunman, but a chain of decisions, loyalties and orders, all feeding into a killing that the state says Davis helped set in motion. The court will try to sort out who did what, while the memoir already lays out a version of events that prosecutors intend to use against him.
Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew, has long been considered the suspect who pulled the trigger, but charges were never brought against him in the killing. He died two years after Shakur’s death in an unrelated gang shootout in Compton, California. Two others — Deandrae “Freaky” Smith and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown — were in the car with Davis and Anderson, but they have since died as well. The dead don’t get to testify. The living are left to sort through the wreckage.
Witnesses, Prisons and the Long Reach of the System
Prosecutors expect to call between 35 and 45 witnesses, ranging from people who saw Shakur moments before he was shot to people who were in both Shakur and Davis’ orbits at the time. Their witness list includes former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and members of Shakur’s family, though not everyone on the list will necessarily testify. Attorneys may ask potential jurors if they’re familiar with certain names.
Leonard Jefferson, a California resident who pulled up next to the BMW and snapped a photograph that became the last known photo of Shakur, is expected to testify. The state is also expected to call Denvonta Lee, who was affiliated with the South Side Crips. In grand jury testimony, Lee said rival gangs, the Crips and Mob Piru, were tied to dueling record labels Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records. Though he wasn’t there that night, Lee also testified that Anderson didn’t have a clear shot, so Smith took the gun and did the shooting. He also said Davis was in charge and gave the gun to Anderson, who gave it to Smith.
The witness list includes others who previously testified to the grand jury, including Malcolm Greenidge, a friend of Shakur’s who was traveling in his entourage that night. Reggie Wright, who grew up in Compton and did security for Death Row Records, is also expected to testify. Other witnesses will be new, including a former member of Death Row’s security team and a former member of Mob Piru who was at Club 662 the night Shakur was shot. Witnesses also include former police officers and detectives, as well as gang experts.
Davis’ defense attorney is expected to call less than a handful of witnesses, including one expert in the area of false confessions and coercive interrogation techniques. That’s the narrow defense side of a case built by the state’s broader apparatus, with prosecutors lining up dozens of voices and the defense trying to answer with almost nothing.
Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing a Compton businessman outside a burger stand in January 2015. He previously said he would not testify in Davis’ case. As the only other living eyewitness who was in one of the two vehicles that night, Knight’s testimony could make or break the case. Davis’ defense attorney Michael Sanft told The Associated Press that Knight would be a good witness for Davis’ defense if he did testify.
Fans have also speculated whether Sean “Diddy” Combs will testify. Combs is currently serving a four-year prison sentence in New Jersey following his conviction of prostitution-related charges. In his book, Davis alleged Combs wanted Knight and Shakur dead and offered Davis money to kill them. Combs has long denied having any involvement in the shooting. A spokesperson for Combs did not return emailed requests asking whether he plans to testify and his name does not appear on any witness list.