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After 30 years as an unsolved case, Tupac Shakur’s murder has been solved. Duane “Keffe D” Davis was convicted on one count of murder with use of a deadly weapon on August 31 after the jury deliberated for three hours, per the Associated Press. Davis could be sentenced to life in prison.
The prosecutors’ case regarding the 1996 killing centered around one thing: Davis’s own words. In recent years, he published a memoir, Compton Street Legend; spoke on various podcasts; and even talked in a documentary called Death Row Chronicles about his involvement in Shakur’s killing.
As Davis story goes, Shakur was killed due to a gang rivalry between the Crips, which Davis was a member of, and the Bloods, who were aligned with Shakur. The showdown that resulted in Shakur’s death began when the two gangs faced off at a Southern California mall. Then, a group that included Shakur jumped Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson, after a Mike Tyson prizefight. That was the permission Anderson and Davis needed. Davis told the story of how he was in a white Cadillac with Anderson, per court reporter Meghan Cuniff, when they pulled up alongside Shakur in a black BMW. Davis supplied the gun, but Anderson pulled the trigger, hitting Shakur four times. He died six days later in a hospital. Anderson died in 1998, also from a gunshot wound.
Davis chose to speak publicly about Shakur’s murder because he believed himself to be immune to prosecution, per the New York Times. He talked to police in 2008 about the murder for the first time, attempting to escape drug charges, but the interviews were not available to prosecution because they had an agreement preventing prosecution using those interviews. But then came the memoir, a documentary, and the interviews, all of which were fair game, despite what Davis thought. Davis will be held without bail until his sentencing on October 13.
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