Duane Davis sentenced to 40 years to life for the death of Tupac Shakur
By Celina Tebor, Cindy Von Quednow, CNN
(CNN) — Thirty years after the death of Tupac Shakur shocked the nation, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of the iconic rap star.
“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” Judge Carli Kierny said before delivering the sentence to Davis. “You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him, and just walk away from it. Especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.”
“The world never forgot about him and his death, and neither did Las Vegas. Took us 30 years, but at this time, you are going to face justice for what you did on September 7, 1996,” she said. Davis has 731 days of credit for time already served toward his sentence.
Davis, a former leader of the Southside Compton Crips gang, was found guilty of first-degree murder on August 31 for plotting the 1996 killing of the rap mogul near the Las Vegas Strip. He remains the only person ever charged in the death of Shakur, who was 25 and at the height of his career when his life ended.
For nearly three decades, the case remained unsolved: No murder weapon was ever recovered, law enforcement officials struggled with tight-lipped witnesses abiding by the gangs’ “code of the streets,” and as year after year passed, any physical evidence that might have existed slowly faded away.
But as those years went by, a new form of evidence emerged around which prosecutors would eventually build their case: Davis’ own words. He spoke openly in interviews, documentaries and podcasts about his involvement in Shakur’s death and released a 2019 memoir recounting his version of events.
“I know the real f**king story,” he wrote.
That decision to write his book effectively negated his proffer agreement with police, prosecutors said, in which he agreed to give up information that couldn’t be used against him in exchange for a potentially lighter sentence for drug charges he was facing at the time.
Kierny ruled Davis’ statements in his memoir, as well as those made in his previous police interviews, were admissible as evidence in the trial.
Prosecutors didn’t argue Davis pulled the trigger; rather, they said as a high-ranking member of the Southside Compton Crips, he orchestrated the shooting in retaliation after a fight between Shakur’s entourage and his nephew, Orlando Anderson, at the MGM Grand. Shakur was shot later that night while riding in a car with Marion “Suge” Knight and died six days later.
Kierny handed down the sentence. At the beginning of the trial, the 63-year-old waived his right to be sentenced by the jury, who convicted him of murder after less than three hours of deliberations.
“He was born a legend,” sister says
Video credit: POOL via KVVU
Sekyiwa Shakur spoke before the sentencing, describing her brother as a caretaker and shining star.
“My brother was born an icon. He was born a legend,” Sekyiwa Shakur said, her voice breaking.
“The loss of Tupac, for a long time, crippled my entire family, emotionally and mentally,” she said, adding she suffered from depression, suicidal ideation and trauma. “Both of my children were raised in my grief.”
Sekyiwa Shakur said she lost more than a brother the day the rap star died.
“He was supposed to be my life partner,” she said. “I spent 30 years without my protection.”
Sekyiwa Shakur said she thought her brother would have changed the world had he not been gunned down.
“He was such an amazing artist, an amazing actor, an amazing poet, an amazing orator. I truly believe he would have been in government,” she said. “I truly believe he would have already constructed organizations and homes for lost boys and wayward teens.”
She said it was difficult for her to listen during the trial about how her brother was “hunted.”
“He’s so much more than street fodder,” she said.
“Our whole generation lost something huge September 13, 1996,” she said.
Shakur’s stepbrother, Maurice ‘Mopreme’ Shakur, described his death as “devastating” and “heartbreaking” for not only his family but legions of fans.
“Pac didn’t get a chance to have any kids. Pac didn’t see his nieces and nephews grow up, and Pac didn’t have a trial,” Maurice Shakur said. “All Pac got was a death sentence.”
Video credit: POOL via KVVU
A quest for revenge ends in twin tragedies
On the night of September 7, 1996, thousands flocked to Sin City and the MGM Grand to watch Mike Tyson square off against Bruce Seldon in the ring – among them, Shakur and Davis. The fight lasted all of 109 seconds.
Davis wrote in his memoir that his crew was there for a night out. Then his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, was attacked by Shakur and his entourage in retaliation for a prior violent incident at a shopping mall between two rival Los Angeles gangs, the Bloods and Crips. It would set off a chain of events that led to the death of Shakur and has long been linked in public memory to the murder of Christopher Wallace, known as “Biggie Smalls,” just six months later.
Davis and his crew “went hunting” for Shakur after the fight, prosecutors said in their closing argument. They found their target in the passenger seat of a black BMW just off the Vegas Strip.
Davis told police in 2008 he handed a gun to a passenger, Deandre Smith, in the back seat. Then his nephew, Anderson, “leaned over on the window, he rolled down the window, popped,” he said.
Four bullets entered Shakur’s body, one obliterating his lung. He died six days later on September 13.
Six months after the California rapper’s death, his biggest rival from New York, Wallace, said the coastal hip-hop feud was “game over.”
“I’m just getting over – you know what I’m saying – this whole situation with this East Coast-West Coast thing, you know?” the Brooklyn rapper told San Francisco radio station KYLD.
Less than a week later, he, too, was dead. Wallace was killed in a drive-by shooting after leaving a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in March 1997.
Wallace’s name came up repeatedly in the Las Vegas courtroom where no one was charged with his murder.
When Davis sat down for his proffer interview with investigators in 2008, they hoped to get some information about Wallace’s death, former LAPD detective Daryn Dupree testified.
“No, we didn’t have anything to do with that one,” Davis said, according to Dupree.
“We did the other one,” he said.
Investigators, Dupree said, were “shook” by the statement. Wallace’s case, they were prepared for. They had no idea revelations about Shakur were coming.
The world of gangsters and rappers loomed large over the trial. Former gang members took the stand, some against their own will, and observers waited to see if Knight, the co-founder of Death Row Records, would testify. He ultimately didn’t take the stand, with the district attorney’s office later saying it was because “he’s not credible.”
Another name that came up repeatedly was that of disgraced impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs. Davis told police there was more to Shakur’s killing than his own personal revenge, saying Combs agreed to pay him a million dollars to kill Shakur and Knight but stiffed him after Shakur’s death. Combs is serving time in prison on unrelated charges and denied the allegations in a statement to CNN, saying, “Davis has denied his own claims, maintaining that he made the statements to gain fame and notoriety and that they were not true.”
For all the famous names and long-running theories that surfaced in court, the murder trial ultimately was about just one killing: Shakur’s. Nearly 30 years after he was fatally shot in Las Vegas, the first and only person ever tried in his murder was convicted.
“I ain’t never told nobody that story,” Davis told police in his 2008 interview after detailing his plan to go after Shakur.
“Doesn’t it feel good, man, to get it off your chest?” one officer said. Another joked Davis could write a book about it one day.
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CNN’s Taylor Galgano, Zoe Sottile, Andy Rose, Taylor Romine, Jack Hannah and Josh Campbell contributed to this report.
