Tupac Shakur Murder Mastermind Sentenced To Decades In Prison For 1996 Killing

The only individual ever actually charged in the 1996 fatal shooting of Tupac Shakur was sentenced today to 40 years to life in prison.

Convicted of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon on August 31, Duane “Keff D” Davis was in court in Las Vegas Tuesday to learn his fate from Judge Carli Kierny.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” the judge told Davis in announcing his decades behind bars. Acknowledging how long it has taken for justice to be served in the death of the hip hop icon, she added: “You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future, from him …especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.”

Even with his bragging of involvement in the Poetic Justice star’s murder in his own memoir, on TV and elsewhere over the years, Davis has insisted since his 2023 arrest that he was not guilty. In fact, the ex-gang leader has said he wasn’t even in Sin City that September night over 30 years ago.

As he did when found guilty earlier this year, Davis said “I’m appealing this case for sure.”

In the aftermath of a Mike Tyson fight at Vegas’ MGM Grand, and at the height of the West Coast/East Coast rap beef, Shakur was shot by two rounds in the chest, one in the arm and one in the thigh, while in a car. Death Row Records boss Suge Knight was in the black BMW with Shakur when that mysterious a white Cadillac appeared and gun fire began. Knight lived, but the son of a Black Panther activist Afeni Shakur died at in the hospital six days later.

Like the subsequent death of Notorious B.I.G., what happened to Shakur and who was responsible remained an open case with flare ups of media interest.

Though Davis earlier in the hearing disputed not being allowed time already served due to an incident with another inmate, he was silent when Judge Kierny delivered his sentence

Before that, Tupac’s sister Sekyiwa Shakur addressed the court Tuesday on the personal and cultural loss resulting from the ‘California Love’ rapper’s death. Through Shakur’s remarks, Davis was seen rolling his eyes and making other reactions to her words. The Shakur sister asked Judge Kierny to give Davis the maximum time possible behind bars. It was a request reiterated in the Nevada courtroom by Shakur’s stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur too.