Tupac Shakur trial hears revenge killing claim

Prosecutors told a Las Vegas jury on Monday that Duane “Keffe D” Davis ordered the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur as revenge after Shakur and others beat Davis's nephew earlier the same night.

Davis, 63, denies murder and other charges. If convicted, he faces possible life in prison without parole.

Prosecutor Binu Pilal said Shakur took part in a filmed beating of Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis's nephew, on Sept. 7, 1996. Pilal said Shakur was shot about two and a half hours later in a drive-by attack from a white Cadillac.

Pilal told jurors that Davis did not fire the fatal shots but handed a gun to someone in the back seat of his car and ordered that person to shoot the rapper. He said Davis later repeatedly described his anger and his role in the killing in interviews, public statements, private calls and an autobiography.

Davis's lawyer, Michael Sanft, said prosecutors had no real proof that Davis was culpable. He described the police investigation as confused and said it had repeatedly failed to establish a definitive version of events.

“What they are telling you, they're representing to be a fact when it really is a fiction, and it's up to you to determine what the facts are,” Sanft told jurors.

The trial revisits one of the best-known cold cases in US music history. Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was 25 when he was fatally wounded in Las Vegas. He was a central figure in a hip-hop rivalry between the US East Coast and West Coast.

Prosecutors say the killing followed a confrontation after a Mike Tyson fight. They say Marion “Suge” Knight and Shakur beat Anderson in retribution over an alleged assault of a Death Row Records employee.

Later that night, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and others pulled up beside Shakur's car. Shots were fired from the Cadillac, and Shakur was fatally wounded.

The case was revived after Davis's memoir was published in 2019. In the book, Davis recounted being in the front seat of the Cadillac and handing a pistol to people in the back seat. Davis has since said those claims were bluster created by a ghostwriter to sell books.