Tupac Shakur murder: Duane Davis found guilty

Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been found guilty by a Las Vegas court of murdering rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996.

A jury on Monday found Davis, 63, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon after a few hours of deliberation. Davis faces possible life in prison without parole and told Judge Carli Kierny after the verdict that he intends to appeal. Sentencing is scheduled for October 13.

Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, had pleaded not guilty. He was the only person charged in connection with Shakur’s killing.

Prosecutors said Davis ordered the shooting after his nephew was beaten by members of Shakur’s entourage at a Las Vegas casino on September 7, 1996. Shakur was later shot by a gunman in a white Cadillac that pulled up beside the BMW in which he was riding as a front-seat passenger. Shakur died six days later. Marion “Suge” Knight, the Death Row Records co-founder who was driving the BMW, was wounded.

Prosecutors said Davis handed a gun to someone in the back seat of the Cadillac and ordered that person to shoot Shakur. Davis is the only person who was in the Cadillac that evening who is still alive.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft argued that Davis’s past statements about involvement in the killing were fiction and lies partly meant to promote Davis’s autobiography. Prosecutors used clips from Davis’s alleged confessions in closing arguments.