Tupac Shakur killing trial opens in Las Vegas

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former South Side Compton Crips leader, goes on trial in Las Vegas on August 10 over the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

Prosecutors allege Davis ordered the killing and provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting. Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

Jury selection is expected to take a week, and the proceedings are expected to last about a month. The trial is not expected to clearly establish who fired the shots that killed Shakur.

Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was shot after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas on September 7, 1996. Prosecutors say the shooting followed a confrontation at the MGM Grand casino involving Shakur, Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight and Davis's nephew Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson.

The cold case was revived after Davis published memoirs in 2019. In the book, Davis recounted being in the front seat of the Cadillac used in the shooting and handing a pistol to people in the back seat, but he did not identify the shooter. Everyone else who was in the Cadillac that night has since died.

Davis later denied involvement. “I'm innocent. I ain't killed nobody,” he told ABC News in a March 2025 prison interview. He said he was in Los Angeles on the night of the killing and claimed his memoir was inflated by a co-author to generate book sales.

Davis's lawyers unsuccessfully tried to keep the book and remarks he made to police in 2008 from being introduced as evidence.