Trial opens in Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder case

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA,US

Jury selection is due to begin on Monday in the murder trial of an ex-street gang leader accused of masterminding the drive-by shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur three decades ago in Las Vegas, a long-unsolved crime that became a seminal moment in rap music ?history.

Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, is charged in Clark County, Nevada, with a single count of murder by use of a deadly weapon. He has pleaded not guilty. Davis is accused of leading a group of men to kill Shakur, 25, one of rap's most commercially successful and influential artists, in a 1996 drive-by shooting near the Las Vegas Strip.

The killing heightened the image of violence permeating hip-hop culture and its lyrics during "gangsta" rap's golden age, stoking the infamous East Coast-West Coast rap feud of that era.

Police said after Davis' 2023 arrest that he was a longtime suspect in the killing but that investigators lacked sufficient admissible ?evidence to charge him until he began implicating himself in a series of public statements.

The trial before Judge Carli Kierny is expected to run for up to six weeks in a downtown Las Vegas courthouse. It may feature testimony from Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight, a former rap mogul who was with Shakur the night he was slain and is now serving a 28-year prison sentence on an unrelated voluntary manslaughter conviction.

The 'shot caller'

Authorities have described Davis as the "shot caller" of a hurried plot to avenge the beating of his nephew by Shakur and members of his entourage inside the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas the night of September 7, 1996.

The violence at the casino allegedly stemmed from hostility between two Los Angeles-area street gangs - the South Side Compton Crips, of which Davis was the self-described leader, and Mob Piru, which police say was associated with Knight and Death Row Records. They were in Las Vegas to see a world heavyweight title boxing match between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon.

Davis allegedly ?obtained the ?murder weapon and handed it off to two other men in the rear seat of a white Cadillac as they rode around looking for Knight and Shakur's car following the brawl.

Shots were fired when Davis and the others caught up with Knight and Shakur's vehicle. Shakur was struck four times and died in a hospital six days later. Knight, who had been driving, suffered a minor injury from a bullet fragment that grazed his head.

Cold case heats up

The murder investigation grew cold for nearly three decades. Still, police said the case was reinvigorated in 2018 ?by statements Davis made to various media outlets about his involvement in the shooting.