Ex-Compton gang leader found guilty in murder of Tupac Shakur
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- A jury in Las Vegas found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty in the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.
asserted
Davis → find → Shakur
- Prosecutors said the former gang member went “hunting” for Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight, building their case largely on Davis’ own recorded words.
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member → say → words
- Jurors deliberated for just a few hours before delivering their verdict.
asserted
Jurors → deliberate → verdict
A Las Vegas jury on Monday found a one-time Compton gang leader guilty in the slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur, marking a turning point in a murder mystery that captivated the public’s attention for decades.
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that → find → decades
Jurors deliberated for just a few hours in the murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who was accused of orchestrating the fatal 1996 shooting of Shakur as the rapper sat in a BMW next to Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
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rapper → deliberate → Knight
The 63-year-old Davis faces a life sentence.
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Davis → face → sentence
After the verdict, members of Shakur’s family hugged the two prosecutors.
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members → hug → prosecutors
Davis said he would appeal his conviction.
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he → say → conviction
During the two-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Davis, as his gang’s shot caller, “went hunting” — arranging the rapper’s killing by getting a .40-caliber handgun and passing it to fellow members of the Southside Crips-Burris Street gang as they rode in a Cadillac near the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996.
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they → present → Sept.
The motive, prosecutors told jurors, was revenge.
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prosecutors → tell → jurors
Hours earlier, after a Mike Tyson fight, Shakur, Knight and members of the Mob Piru gang associated with Death Row had beaten Orlando Anderson, a nephew of Davis, at the MGM Grand.
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Shakur → associate → Grand
The Pirus, a Blood gang, had a longtime rivalry with the Southside Crips on the streets of Compton.
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Pirus → have → Compton
That feud escalated as the Crips became the protection for East Coast rap and Sean Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment against Death Row’s Mob Pirus.
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Crips → escalate → Pirus
“Duane Davis, in the culture of gangs,” could not let the beating of his nephew stand, Clark County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Binu Palal told jurors.
uncertain
Palal → let → jurors
“He acquired a firearm, got his group together, and went hunting for Mr. Shakur or Mr. Knight.”
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He → acquire → Shakur
The trial of the alleged mastermind behind the killing of famed rapper and actor Tupac Shakur got underway in Las Vegas, with prosecutors alleging the shooting was the culmination of a gang rivalry and fight at the MGM Grand.
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shooting → allege → Grand
In closing their case, prosecutors told jurors they had not only heard Davis’ own incriminating words in two police interviews and a documentary, but also had been presented with a deluge of circumstantial evidence linking him to one of the most famous murders in modern history.
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they → close → history
But Michael Sanft, Davis’ defense lawyer, argued that the prosecution had no forensics, no eyewitness and not a single shred of physical evidence placing Davis in the Cadillac with the shooter.
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prosecution → argue → shooter
“The state wants you to believe this was a confession, that he was somehow there in person at the time of the shooting,” Sanft told jurors.
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Sanft → want → jurors
“We can’t even put Davis in Las Vegas.”
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We → put → Vegas
Sanft claimed his client fabricated his story in a 2008 interview with Los Angeles police and federal authorities as part of their investigation into the 1997 slaying of rapper Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls, to avoid a life sentence for drug dealing.
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client → claim → dealing
He later repeated parts of the fabricated stories to help sell his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” Sanft argued.
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Sanft → repeat → memoir
“You’re reading a book that is fiction and not fact,” Sanft told jurors.
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Sanft → read → jurors
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said the speed with which the verdict was reached was “surprising” given the prosecution based much of its case on words spoken by Davis over the years.
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prosecution → say → years
“I give credit to the Clark County D.A. for bringing a very difficult cold case and getting across the finish line when every other prosecutor who considered it passed on it,” Rahmani said.
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Rahmani → give → it
Legal experts call it a novel tactic, but perhaps the best shot at getting jurors to ignore statements in police interviews and a documentary they heard in Duane Davis’ own words.
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they → call → words
In landing the verdict, prosecutors showed Davis had to retaliate for his nephew’s beating.
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Davis → land → beating
Davis and his gang had gone to Knight’s nightclub and stopped at a liquor store when they came upon Knight and Shakur’s procession of cars.
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they → go → cars
“They happen to run into Tupac Shakur and ‘Suge’ Knight going the opposite way ... and in that moment, a decision is made not to keep going, but to make a U-turn around, pass a gun and shoot into Tupac and ‘Suge’ Knight’s car,” Palal said.
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Palal → happen → car
Shakur and Knight were both struck in the shooting.
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Shakur → strike → shooting
Knight survived, but Shakur died from his wounds in a Las Vegas hospital days later.
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Shakur → survive → hospital
Palal told jurors that, in Nevada, being part of a conspiracy makes someone guilty of murder; “you don’t have to pull the trigger.
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you → tell → trigger
Making a U-turn, he added, was evidence of premeditation.
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he → make → premeditation
More than three decades ago, they were young men at the center of a violent gang war that took many lives, notably that of rapper Tupac Shakur.
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that → take → Shakur
It was the investigation into the 1997 murder of Wallace in Los Angeles that ultimately led to the break in Shakur’s killing.
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that → lead → killing
Former LAPD Homicide Det. Daryn Dupree testified that Davis said during the 2008 federal task force investigation into Wallace’s killing that he knew about that shooting and then indicated: “We did the other one.”
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We → testify → one
That statement shifted investigators’ focus to the Shakur killing.
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statement → shift → killing
In closing arguments, the prosecution played a recording of the federal task force interview in which Davis said Terrence Brown was the driver of the Cadillac that night, with Anderson and Deandrae “Big Dre” Smith in the back and himself in the passenger seat.
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Brown → play → seat
Davis was given a proffer agreement for talking with the task force, meaning he agreed to provide information in exchange for possible benefit.
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he → give → benefit
He told the task force that they only noticed their targets in the BMW because some women in a Chrysler Sebring were yelling at the rapper.
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women → tell → rapper
…and 26 more, not listed.
