Nearly three decades after Tupac Shakur was killed in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, the long-running murder case has finally reached trial, with opening statements beginning on Monday, reports Reuters.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a 63-year-old former street gang leader, is accused of masterminding the 1996 killing of the hip-hop icon. He faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon in Clark County, Nevada, and has pleaded not guilty.
Shakur, one of the most commercially successful and influential figures in rap history, was 25 when he was shot near the Las Vegas Strip on 7 September, 1996.
He was travelling in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight when another vehicle pulled alongside them and opened fire.
Shakur was struck four times and died in hospital six days later. Knight suffered a minor injury after a bullet fragment grazed his head.
The shooting became one of the most notorious unsolved crimes in music history and intensified the bitter East Coast-West Coast rivalry that dominated hip-hop during the 1990s.
The trial is being heard by Judge Carli Kierny at a downtown Las Vegas courthouse and is expected to last up to six weeks. A jury was selected last week.
Prosecutors allege that Davis was the “shot caller” behind the attack, which was carried out as retaliation for an earlier confrontation involving Shakur and Davis’ nephew.
The confrontation took place inside the MGM Grand casino on the night of 7 September, shortly before the shooting. Authorities say it involved members of the South Side Compton Crips, which Davis has described himself as having led, and Mob Piru, which police have associated with Knight and Death Row Records.
Both groups were in Las Vegas for the heavyweight boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.
According to authorities, Davis obtained the gun and passed it to another passenger as he and three other men travelled in a white Cadillac searching for Knight and Shakur’s vehicle.
When they eventually caught up with the BMW, shots were fired.
Davis has never been accused of personally pulling the trigger. Under Nevada law, however, a person can face a murder charge for participating in the crime even if they did not fire the weapon.
The investigation remained unresolved for years. Authorities say the case gained new momentum after Davis made a series of public statements in 2018 discussing his involvement.
In his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, Davis said he had been sitting in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had handed the gun to one of the men in the back.
However, neither Davis’ accounts nor investigators have established who actually fired the shots. The three other men who were in the Cadillac have since died.
Davis was arrested in September 2023, becoming the only person to have been arrested in connection with Shakur’s killing.
The trial could also feature testimony from Knight, who was with Shakur when the shooting occurred. Knight is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence for an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction.
Davis has also claimed in his memoir that he was long considered a suspect in the killing of Shakur as well as that of fellow rapper Christopher Wallace, better known as The Notorious B.I.G.
Wallace was shot dead in Los Angeles in March 1997, six months after Shakur’s death.
His killing remains unsolved, although investigators have long explored theories that it was connected to the rivalry and violence surrounding Shakur’s murder.
The trial now offers the first major courtroom examination of the events surrounding Shakur’s death since the case went cold nearly 30 years ago.
