Thirty years after hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur was gunned down, former South Side Compton Crips gang leader Duane “Keefe D” Davis, 63, appeared in court Monday for trial over the 1996 murder — the first person to face charges in the case.
Davis is charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon in the September 7, 1996 shooting of the 25-year-old rapper in Las Vegas. He has pleaded not guilty.
Opening statements began with prosecutors describing Shakur’s death as “an act of revenge.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis harbored “visceral anger” toward Tupac for years and acted after his nephew, Orlando Anderson, was involved in a fight with the rapper hours earlier at a Mike Tyson fight.
“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.”
Prosecutors said they will rely heavily on Davis’ own statements, including a memoir he co-authored and past interviews in which he allegedly detailed the night of the shooting. They allege Davis was the “on-ground, on-site commander” who ordered the hit.
Four witnesses testified on day one, including the officer who pulled over Marion “Suge” Knight and Tupac the night of the shooting, and a woman who was in the car ahead of them when shots rang out. Several of Shakur’s family members, including his sister, were in court.
Tupac died six days after being shot while leaving the Tyson bout.
*Defense: Book Was ‘Fiction’*
The defense pushed back, dismissing the evidence as stale and self-serving.
Attorney Michael Sanft called the memoir “fiction” designed to sell copies and displayed a PowerPoint slide to jurors that read “Bulls-t.”
“What facts will they have after 30 years?” Sanft asked. “Keefe D was known to do this.”
The defense argued the decades-long investigation is flawed and that no one can corroborate the claims.
On day two, the court played audio from a 1997 interview between Davis and former LAPD detective Fred Miller, who had questioned Davis about both Tupac’s murder and the 1997 killing of Notorious B.I.G.
Davis, dressed in a navy suit and blue tie, listened in court as the recordings were played.
The trial is expected to delve deeper into Davis’ alleged confession, gang ties, and the events surrounding one of music’s most infamous unsolved crimes — now finally being tested before a jury three decades later.
