A Las Vegas jury has found former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane Keith Davis guilty of the murder of Tupac Shakur , bringing the case to a close nearly 30 years after the famous rapper was gunned down .
The jury took about three hours to reach a guilty verdict in a case that relied heavily on multiple confessions from Davis himself , including his description of the killing in the 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend .
Shakur was born in 1971 in East Harlem , New York , and rose to fame in the early nineties , with poetic flow that doubled as sharp commentary on social injustice , including systemic racism , police brutality and the struggles felt by marginalized communities .
Regarded among the greatest rappers to ever live , Shakur affected generations and continued to be celebrated around the world even years after his life was cut short . He was only 25 years old when he died in the hospital days after being shot four times in a car near the Las Vegas Strip .
Reverence for the rapper has long inspired conspiracy theories about his death as questions swirled around who was involved , why the case remained open for years and even whether Shakur was actually dead .
The trial has offered some resolution , even as family members and fans continue to mourn both the man and the years it took to bring details of his death to light .
Over the weeks - long trial , Marc DiGiacomo , the Clark county district attorney , and Binu Palal , the chief deputy district attorney , brought 25 witnesses to the stand – including some who had to be ordered by the court because they were reluctant to testify – in their case against Davis .
The 63 - year - old man who was accused of instigating the deadly shooting , although not pulling the trigger himself , had spent years telling investigators and interviewers alike of his direct involvement before he was arrested in 2023 .
Davis’s attorney Michael Sanft tried to frame the stories and statements as the exaggerated and embellished claims of a man hoping to benefit from the public interest and unanswered questions around Shakur’s murder .
Prosecutors played eight hours of recordings , taken from four separate events in different years , during which Davis shared in his own words what happened the night of 7 September 1996 . Davis wrote that he had hatched the plan to retaliate against Shakur , after the rapper’s entourage beat his nephew , Orlando “ Baby Lane ” Anderson , in the lobby of the MGM Grand earlier that night . Anderson , who died two years later in an unrelated shootout , was a member of a rival gang in Compton , California .
Shakur and the founder of his label , Marion “ Suge ” Knight , had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match at the casino when the altercation with Anderson took place , and were on their way to an after - party . A white Cadillac pulled up next to them while they were stopped at a red light , and someone in that car began shooting , according to investigators .
In his book , Davis claimed to have been in that car , and that he’d brought a . 40 - caliber Glock with him . “ Them jumping on my nephew gave us the green light to want to do something to their ass , ” he wrote . “ Pac chose the wrong game to play . ”
Tupac’s sister , Sekyiwa “ Set ” Shakur , cried as the verdict was read , while Davis’s son covered his face with his hand , according to the Associated Press .
“ It was kinda hard for me to feel so happy at the same time knowing someone is going to jail for so long , ” a teary - eyed Shakur fan named Jessica Martin told AP outside the courtroom . “ But then I looked over at Tupac’s family and it reminded me of everything they’ve gone through . It’s really emotional . ”
Clark county district court judge Carli Kierny scheduled Davis’s sentencing hearing for 13 October . Prosecutors had not sought the death penalty against Davis and , after the verdict , voluntarily dropped their efforts to tack a gang enhancement on to Davis’s conviction .
First - degree murder in Nevada carries penalties ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment . Davis said he plans to appeal the verdict .
While the trial has finally come to an end , family members had been left to wonder for years why it took so long for investigators to reach a conclusion in the case .
“ We’ve been waiting 30 years to grieve properly , ” Zayd Akinyela , Shakur’s cousin told reporters outside the courtroom when the trial was under way . “ A lot of people don’t get to grieve until they understand what happened to their loved one and how it happened . ”
A Los Angeles Times review of police missteps on the case , published in 2015 , detailed how authorities failed to investigate Anderson even after details about the conflict between him and Shakur’s entourage became known . Police also declined to follow a lead from a member of Shakur’s entourage , who claimed he could identify the shooters . That witness died weeks later in a separate shooting , the Times reported .
The investigation highlighted why many of his followers , members of his family and Black leaders and entertainers have pointed to the case – and the years it took to reach a conclusion – as yet another indication of racism in a broken justice system .
Investigators , meanwhile , said it was challenging to prove because they struggled to produce physical evidence and faced strong resistance from potential witnesses , including other members of the rapper’s entourage . Even now , some resisted participating in the case and had to be compelled to come to court .
Davis ultimately became the prosecution’s lead witness , despite being the defendant . “ Had he decided to never write the book , ” DiGiacomo said during the trial , “ he would not , probably , have ever been prosecuted for the crime . ”
