Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, 63, former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang, went on trial August 10, 2026, in Las Vegas for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Davis is charged with one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty [2, 3, 4, 6].

Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records co-founder Marion 'Suge' Knight near the Las Vegas Strip. He was struck by four bullets and died six days later at age 25 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The shooting came hours after a fight at the MGM Grand casino involving Shakur, Knight, and Davis's nephew Orlando 'Baby Lane' Anderson [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

Prosecutors allege Davis organized a retaliatory drive-by shooting in which a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson, and others pulled alongside Shakur's car and opened fire [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. The murder weapon and the Cadillac have never been recovered [3, 4, 6]. Davis admitted in a 2019 memoir and interviews to being in the Cadillac and handing a gun to others but did not identify the shooter [1, 3, 4, 6]. Authorities long suspected Anderson fired the shots, but grand jury testimony has suggested Deandrae Smith may have been the gunman [3, 4, 6]. Prosecutors state Davis was the "shot caller" who provided the gun but did not fire the fatal shots [2, 3, 4, 6].

Davis is the only alleged participant still alive. Knight was present the night of the shooting but is serving a 28-year prison sentence on an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction [2, 3, 4]. Defense attorneys challenged the admissibility of Davis’s 2008 police interview and memoir statements, but a Nevada judge allowed them into evidence [6].

The trial is expected to last four to six weeks, with some sources saying about one month [1, 2, 5, 6]. If convicted, Davis faces life imprisonment without parole [1, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Jury selection began today in Las Vegas.

The proceedings mark the first major court action in the case since Davis’s 2019 memoir and his subsequent 2023 arrest and charge for Shakur’s murder [1, 2, 6].