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Opening statements are scheduled to kick off later today in the murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, who is charged in connection with the 1996 murder of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.
Davis, 63, is not accused of pulling the trigger, but prosecutors allege he was in a white Cadillac with three other individuals during a drive-by shooting targeting Shakur and former music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight, who survived the attack and is currently in a California prison for an unrelated case.
Davis allegedly detailed the shooting during a 2008 interview with detectives and in a 2019 book, “Compton Street Legend: Notorious Keffe D’s Street-Level Accounts of Tupac and Biggie Murders, Death Row Origins, Suge Knight, Puffy Combs, and Crooked Cops.”
TUPAC SHAKUR MURDER SUSPECT TAKES CENTER STAGE AT TRIAL NEARLY 30 YEARS AFTER SHOOTING SHOCKED MUSIC WORLD
Duane “Keffe D” Davis enters a courtroom in Clark County District Court for a trial readiness status check at the Regional Justice Center on June 17, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Steve Marcus-Pool/Getty Images)
In promotional material for the book on Amazon, Davis is described as a “former shot caller for the Southside Compton Crips and Kingpin of a Compton based drug operation,” as well as “one of the only living witnesses to the 1996 slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur.”
Davis was a confidential informant for the Los Angeles Police Department during the 2008 interview, however the judge agreed with prosecutors that his remarks should be allowed at trial because of the public statements in the book.
The defense has argued that Davis embellished and fictionalized claims in the book and challenged the admissibility of statements from the 2008 interview.
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The late Tupac Shakur and Marion “Suge” Knight were pictured in 1996. Knight is currently serving a 28-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter in 2018. (Jeff Kravitz)
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Knight, another living witness, has said in recent interviews that he doesn’t intend to cooperate if called to testify. His name appears on the prosecution witness list. He has not responded to messages from Digital.
Tupac Shakur in Poetic Justice.
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The assailants struck Shakur four times on Sept. 7, 1996, while he was in a BMW alongside Knight on the Las Vegas strip. He died from his injuries six days later at 25 years old.
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Three other men believed to have been in the Cadillac with Davis that night have since died.
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Hours before the shooting, Shakur, Knight and others were involved in a fight at the MGM Grand with Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’ nephew and a member of the South Side Compton Crips. The other two were Deandrae “Freaky” Smith and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown.
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‘ Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
