Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis has been found guilty for orchetrating the murder of Tupac Shakur, the first conviction in a hip-hop cold case that took on a life of its own over the last 30 years.
Shakur was shot four times after a fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon in Las Vegas in September 1996. The guilty conviction was rendered almost thirty years to the day of Shakur’s death.
Following a two-week trial, the jury debated for three hours before finding the 63-year-old guilty of murder with a deadly weapon. He could be sentenced to life in jail, reports CNN.
For years, no one had been taken into custody for the Las Vegas murder of Shakur, who was shot on September 7, 1996, and died six days later, despite countless leads, books, films, and more. That is, until Davis started speaking in online interviews and other media, terming the murder as a form of revenge following a fight between Shakur and Suge Knight, who had beaten his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand casino.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said that Davis “went hunting” for the two after obtaining a gun. Although he conceded that Davis’ versions of what transpired that evening had changed over time, he maintained that Davis had changed his tale to shield himself from potential legal action. One crucial aspect of Davis’ account, nevertheless, remained constant: he was in a white Cadillac when a gunman opened fire on a BMW transporting Knight and Shakur, hitting Shakur four times.
Davis’ attorney argued during closing arguments that the prosecution had no surveillance footage, phone records or other physical evidence placing Davis at the scene of the crime.
The prosecution’s rebuttals, which included evidence of an alleged scrapbook belonging to Davis that contained various clippings of articles about Shakur’s murder and the rivalry between the South Side Compton Crips and Mob Piru, which included members of both Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records on opposing sides, were also rejected by the jury.
