Keffe D Sentenced 40 Years For Tupac’s Murder

Duane “Keffe D” Davis has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, nearly three decades after the killing in Las Vegas.

Davis, 63, was sentenced on Tuesday, October 13, after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon. Judge Carli Kierny imposed two consecutive terms of 20 years to life.

Prosecutors argued that Davis helped orchestrate the drive-by shooting, although he did not fire the fatal shots himself.

They alleged that the attack was retaliation for an earlier altercation in which Tupac and members of his entourage assaulted Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson, following a Mike Tyson boxing match.

Tupac was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a vehicle with Death Row Records executive Suge Knight in Las Vegas. He died six days later on September 13.

Prosecutors relied in part on Davis’s own statements about the killing, including comments he made publicly and a memoir published in 2019. The defence challenged the reliability of his statements and the investigation, arguing that Davis had exaggerated his involvement.

During Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Tupac’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, told the court that her brother’s death had deeply affected their family.

“The loss of Tupac, for a long time, crippled my family,” she said.

His brother, Maurice Shakur, also addressed the court, asking the judge to impose the longest possible sentence.

The identity of the person who fired the fatal shots remains a separate question from Davis’s conviction for his role in the killing.