Trial over Tupac Shakur’s murder begins in Las Vegas
The trial over the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur began in Las Vegas on Monday, August 10, 2026, three decades after he was shot on September 7, 1996, following a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand. The defendant is Duane Davis, 63, known as Keffe D, former leader of the South Side Compton Crips. Prosecutors say he orchestrated the shooting, obtained the weapon and organized the car it was fired from, in retaliation for an assault on his nephew by members of Shakur’s entourage.
The case sat unsolved for decades due to a lack of evidence until Davis published a 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend, admitting he rode in the front seat of the white Cadillac and passed the gun to the back seat. Those admissions led to his 2023 arrest, though he has since pleaded not guilty and now claims he never read his own book. The trial, presided over by Judge Carli Kierny and expected to last up to six weeks, could end in a sentence of life without parole.
