The long-awaited murder trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis has opened in Las Vegas, nearly 30 years after the fatal shooting of rap icon Tupac Shakur.
Davis, 63, is charged with murder with a deadly weapon over the September 7, 1996, drive-by shooting that left Shakur critically wounded. The rapper died six days later, aged 25. Davis has pleaded not guilty.
One of the first witnesses, Ingrid Stokes, told the court that she was travelling in a car with friends near Shakur and Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight when the shooting occurred.
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Stokes said another vehicle appeared to be following them and that her group became concerned enough to stop and switch drivers. As they were doing so, she said they suddenly heard gunfire.
“We heard the gunshots … all hell broke loose.”
Stokes said she did not see the occupants of the vehicle from which the shots were fired and therefore could not identify the shooter. She also recalled that she and her friends were initially reluctant to speak openly with police because they feared being labelled “snitches.”
Prosecutors Link Killing to Earlier Fight
Prosecutors allege that the shooting was an act of retaliation after Shakur and members of his entourage attacked Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’s nephew, inside the MGM Grand after the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon heavyweight fight earlier that night.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis organised the retaliation and acted as the “on-ground, on-site commander” of the operation.
The prosecution maintains that Davis did not fire the fatal shots himself but helped organise the attack and supplied a firearm to those in the vehicle.
Prosecutors have also placed significant emphasis on Davis’s own public accounts of the killing. His 2019 memoir and previous interviews contain descriptions of his involvement, material prosecutors say helped revive the long-running investigation.
Defence Challenges Prosecution’s Case
Davis’s defence has rejected the prosecution’s narrative, arguing that investigators have spent decades building a case around unreliable statements and insufficient physical evidence.
Defence lawyer Michael Sanft told jurors they should question whether Davis’s public accounts represented the truth or were exaggerated for financial and personal gain.
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Davis’s lawyers have previously argued that his memoir should not be used as evidence because he had incentives to place himself at the centre of the Tupac story. A judge rejected that effort.
Police Testimony Adds to Timeline
A former Las Vegas police officer, Garry Dale, also testified about his encounter with Shakur and Knight earlier on the night of the shooting.
Dale said he stopped their vehicle because it did not have a rear licence plate and described the encounter as cordial. After the shooting, he later rode in an ambulance with Shakur and recalled trying to persuade the injured rapper to identify his attackers.
Former homicide detective Brent Becker also testified about his interview with Knight following the shooting, while another former Los Angeles detective, Fred Miller, provided jurors with an audio recording of a 1997 interview with Davis concerning his possible knowledge of the killing of fellow rapper Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G. Davis was never charged in Wallace’s murder.
A Case Three Decades in the Making
Tupac’s killing remained one of the most prominent unsolved murders in music history, generating years of competing theories and investigations.
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Davis was finally arrested in 2023, after his public statements and memoir drew renewed attention from Las Vegas investigators. He is the only surviving passenger from the Cadillac that prosecutors say was involved in the shooting.
The trial is expected to last about a month, with prosecutors and defence lawyers set to present further witness testimony and evidence surrounding the events that culminated in Shakur’s death.
