A Nevada judge handed down a 40-year prison sentence to former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis for his role in the 1996 murder of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur.
A Clark County jury convicted the 63-year-old former South Side Compton Crips leader in September on one count of murder with a deadly weapon.
The conviction marked the very first criminal prosecution in a famous cold case that remained unsolved for nearly three decades following the Las Vegas drive-by shooting.
Shakur was just 25 years old and at the peak of his music career when gunmen opened fire on his car on September 7, 1996.
Prosecutors proved that while Davis did not pull the trigger himself, he acted as the ringleader who organized the hit and handed the weapon to his nephew, Orlando Anderson.
Key evidence presented in court included Davis’ own recorded statements and written admissions from his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.
Davis originally disclosed his involvement during a confidential 2008 police interview regarding the murder of rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as Notorious B.I.G.
That proffer agreement shielded Davis from prosecution until he chose to publish details of the crime in his book and discuss them in media interviews.
A judge ruled that Davis violated his immunity deal by going public, allowing prosecutors to use his recorded police interview against him during trial.
Defense attorneys argued during the trial that Davis exaggerated his story and made up the details to profit off book sales, but jurors rejected that argument after reviewing the evidence.
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