Updated on: August 17, 2026 / 8:42 PM EDT
/ CBS/AP
Opening statements began Monday in the trial of a man accused of orchestrating the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, the start of weeks of testimony revisiting what happened on a Las Vegas night nearly 30 years ago.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang in Shakur's death. He pleaded not guilty, but if convicted, he faces life in prison.
Davis entered the courtroom in a blue suit and tie and scanned the audience to see who was there before sitting next to his lawyer, Michael Sanft, once the jury was sworn in and seated.
Members of Shakur's family, including his stepbrother Maurice "Mopreme" Shakur, sat quietly in the front row of the courtroom behind prosecutors.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal showed jurors a picture of the Mike Tyson fight with the date "September 7, 1996" and showed video of Shakur's entourage attacking Davis' nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson.
"On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson," he said. "Then, two and a half hours later … Tupac is gunned down in a drive-by shooting from a white Cadillac in an act of revenge."
Palal said Davis did not pull the trigger, but had handed the gun to someone sitting in the back seat of his car and ordered that person to shoot the rapper.
"Let's be clear, Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting in retaliation of the beating of his nephew," Palal said. "Remarkably, you will learn that from Duane Davis himself."
His lawyer in the defense opening called the prosecution's narrative "fiction."
Sanft questioned why the Clark County DA's office did not charge Davis years ago, CBS affiliate KLAS-TV reported from inside the courtroom.
"No one corroborates any of this," Sanft told the jury, adding: "What facts do they have after 30 years?"
The long-unsolved drive-by shooting gripped the hip-hop community, partly because no one was charged until Davis was indicted in 2023.
Shakur remains a cultural icon and is considered one of the most influential and versatile rappers of all time, despite dying at 25. He was nominated for six Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
In recent years, he received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, had a street in Oakland named in his honor and inspired a character in the upcoming video game "Stranger Than Heaven."
