Ex-gang leader gets 40 years to life for rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder

A former gang leader accused of masterminding the 1996 drive-by shooting of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

Tuesday’s sentencing capped a 30-year-long cold case that rattled the golden era of rap music in the United States.

In August, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, had been found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.

Davis, 63, is the sole person charged in the death of Shakur, who died at the peak of his fame at age 25.

Judge Carli Kierny announced Davis’s sentence at a hearing in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she chided him for the murder.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family, 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,” Kierny said. “The world never forgot about him and his death, and neither did Las Vegas.”

During the hearing, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said that whatever sentence the court imposes, Davis is “guaranteed to die” behind bars.

For nearly three decades, Shakur’s death remained one of the music industry’s most notorious unsolved mysteries, prompting endless debate over who did it and why.

Davis had long been a suspect, but investigators lacked evidence to pursue an indictment.

The investigative deadlock shattered after Davis publicly boasted about his involvement in media interviews. He also recounted his role in the murder in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.

Previously, Davis entered into a 2008 proffer agreement with federal law enforcement officers, granting him limited immunity for statements he made privately to investigators.

But by repeating his statements outside his meetings with investigators, prosecutors said Davis had effectively voided the agreement’s protections.

DiGiacomo said that Davis was trying to profit from a killing that he committed, and for that, he deserves the maximum possible sentence.

Shakur had been in Las Vegas for a Mike Tyson heavyweight fight on the night of September 7, 1996, when he was shot.

Investigators said the shooting took place roughly two hours after a confrontation between Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson, and Shakur’s entourage.

In his memoir, Davis accused Shakur and his friends of assaulting his nephew. He explained he then sought to retaliate, and he admitted to handing the murder weapon to two alleged accomplices, seated in the backseat of a white Cadillac, who then fired the fatal shots.

Shakur had been in the passenger seat of a black BMW, stopped at a red light, when his vehicle came under fire. He died six days later.

Davis is the only person who was in the Cadillac that evening who is still alive.

Members of Shakur’s family spoke at the sentencing, including his siblings Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur and Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur.

“This man’s life mattered,” Sekyiwa Shakur told the court, while her brother called the murder “devastating, heartbreaking and sad”.

Following the verdict, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal described the Shakur family as having to endure years of Davis “bragging about killing someone they loved”.

“They loved that man. And the arrogance that Mr Davis had in expressing his joy in killing that man ultimately was his undoing,” Palal said.

The ex-gang leader briefly addressed the court on Tuesday, asking the judge to order the return of property seized from his residence, including personal photographs.

When the judge asked if he wished to make any additional statements, Davis declined, stating, “No, I’m good.” He added that he would “appeal this case for sure”.