The trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is accused of orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, began on Monday in Las Vegas, nearly 30 years after the high-profile killing.
The proceedings are expected to continue for about a month, although prosecutors may not establish who actually fired the fatal shots. They allege that Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, organised the attack and supplied the gun used in the drive-by shooting.
Jury selection began on Monday and is expected to continue throughout the week. Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty and faces life imprisonment without parole if convicted.
Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was shot on Sept 7, 1996, while travelling through Las Vegas after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match. He died six days later at the age of 25.
The killing became one of the United States’ most prominent unsolved cases and was linked to the long-running rivalry between the US hip-hop scenes on the East and West coasts.
Prosecutors say the shooting was motivated by a confrontation earlier that night, when Shakur and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight assaulted Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who was a member of the Crips.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and others reportedly pulled alongside Shakur’s vehicle and opened fire. Shakur was fatally wounded in the attack.
The investigation remained stalled for years before renewed attention followed the publication of Davis’s memoir in 2019. In the book, Davis said he was sitting in the front of the Cadillac and had handed a pistol to people in the back seat, although he did not identify the shooter.
Davis was arrested in September 2023 and has since denied involvement in the killing. His lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent prosecutors from presenting his memoir and a 2008 police interview as evidence.
In a 2025 interview, Davis maintained that he was in Los Angeles on the night of the shooting and claimed his memoir had been embellished by its co-author.
The case has also generated a separate civil lawsuit. Shakur’s stepbrother Maurice Shakur filed a wrongful-death suit in May, alleging that other individuals involved in the rapper’s killing have yet to be held accountable.
