A Las Vegas jury on Monday found Duane Keith Davis guilty of first-degree murder in the 1996 drive-by shooting death of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Davis, 63, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was convicted after roughly three hours of deliberations. Prosecutors argued he obtained the gun used in the shooting and directed the attack as retaliation after members of Shakur’s group had beaten Davis’s nephew earlier that night in Las Vegas.
Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, and died six days later. Davis is the only person charged in the case. He has long given varying accounts of the night, including in a 2008 police interview and a 2019 memoir. Prosecutors relied heavily on those statements.
Davis did not fire the weapon himself, according to the prosecution’s case. He faces a potential sentence of up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for October 13. Davis told the court he plans to appeal.
Members of Shakur’s family were present in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. Prosecutors later dropped a gang-enhancement portion of the charge, citing witness logistics.
The conviction marks the first criminal accountability in a case that had remained unsolved for nearly three decades.
SOURCES: The New York Times, Associated Press, BBC, The Guardian, CNN
