Tupac Shakur murder trial begins 30 years after rapper's death
Updated Aug. 11, 2026, 6:12 a.m. | By AFP The trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis has begun in connection with the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac…
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Updated Aug. 11, 2026, 6:12 a.m. | By AFP
The trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis has begun in connection with the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Prosecutors allege Davis orchestrated the killing, provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting and ordered the attack.
The trial of a former gang leader accused of orchestrating the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur finally began on Monday, 30 years after one of America's most high-profile unresolved killings.
The proceedings, expected to last a month, will likely not make clear who fired the shots that killed the California hip-hop legend on the night of September 7, 1996, while he was in Las Vegas to see a Mike Tyson boxing match.
But prosecutors aim to show that the defendant, Duane "Keffe D" Davis, onetime leader of the South Side Compton Crips, ordered the killing and provided the gun used to kill Shakur in a drive-by shooting.
The trial began Monday with jury selection, a process expected to last through the week.
Davis, 63, appeared in court wearing a light-blue shirt and blue tie. He faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
The killing of Shakur, also known as 2Pac, is one of America's most celebrated cold cases, prompting endless debate among music fans over who did it and why.
The rapper, who died at age 25, was a key figure in a hip-hop rivalry pitting the East Coast against the West Coast.
Known for hits like "California Love" and "All Eyez on Me," Shakur -- the son of a Black Panther -- was raised in Harlem and Baltimore, but quickly became the epitome of a California bad boy when he signed with Los-Angeles based Death Row Records.
The trial will revisit the battle between Death Row, founded by Marion "Suge" Knight, and Bad Boy Records, the East Coast label created by Sean "Diddy" Combs and starring Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace (murdered in March 1997).
Prosecutors say Death Row Records was protected by Mob Piru, a Los Angeles gang that was part of the wider Bloods alliance. Knight was affiliated with the group.
Bad Boy Records had hired the rival group South Side Compton Crips, led by Davis, as bodyguards.
After the Tyson fight at the MGM Grand casino, Knight and Shakur beat up Davis's nephew, Crips member Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, in retribution over an alleged assault of a Death Row employee.
Davis was out for revenge, the prosecution says.
Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and others pulled up beside Shakur's car in Las Vegas. Shots were fired from the Cadillac, and Shakur was fatally wounded.
The investigation sputtered for decades because of a lack of evidence, but the cold case was revived with the publication in 2019 of Davis's memoirs.
In that book, Davis recounted that he was in the front seat of the Cadillac and that he handed a pistol to those in the back seat. But he does not say who opened fire on Shakur. Everyone else who was in the Cadillac that night has since died.
These compromisin…