A Las Vegas jury has found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of orchestrating the 1996 killing of rap icon Tupac Shakur, delivering the first conviction in a case that has gripped hip-hop for nearly three decades. Davis, 63, was convicted Monday of murder with a deadly weapon after jurors deliberated for less than three hours following a weekslong trial. He could be sentenced to life in prison.
The verdict brings a dramatic measure of legal resolution to one of music's most enduring mysteries, a case shaped by reluctant witnesses, dead suspects and the bitter East Coast-West Coast rivalry that consumed hip-hop during the 1990s. Prosecutors argued Davis was the ringleader behind the attack on Shakur in Las Vegas in September 1996, even though they did not accuse him of personally firing the fatal shots. Under Nevada law, someone who helps orchestrate a killing can be held criminally responsible for murder even if another person carries it out.
The roots of the case stretch back years before Shakur's death and into the volatile feud that divided some of rap's biggest names. Before becoming symbols of opposing sides of the East Coast-West Coast divide, Shakur and Christopher Wallace — better known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls — were friends. They performed together and spent time together as their careers took off.
Everything changed after Shakur was wounded and robbed at a New York recording studio in 1994. Shakur learned Wallace and Sean “Diddy” Combs were at a nearby recording studio that night and later publicly accused them of knowing about the attack in advance. Both vehemently denied the allegation.
The episode shattered Shakur and Wallace's friendship and helped fuel a rivalry that would soon engulf the rap industry. While Shakur was later serving a prison sentence on an unrelated case, Wallace released “Who Shot Ya?” Shakur interpreted the song as a taunt about the New York attack. Wallace maintained it had been recorded earlier and was not aimed at Shakur.
After leaving prison, Shakur signed with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records and increasingly became identified with West Coast rap. Wallace and Combs, meanwhile, were among the biggest names associated with New York-based Bad Boy Records. Death Row co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight took a swipe at Combs during the 1995 Source Awards in New York.
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