Ex-gang leader gets 40 years to life for rapper Tupac Shakur’s 1996 murder

A former gang leader accused of masterminding the 1996 drive-by shooting of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.

Tuesday’s sentencing capped a 30-year-long cold case that rattled the golden era of rap music in the United States.
In August, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, had been found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon.

Davis, 63, is the sole person charged in the death of Shakur, who died at the peak of his fame at age 25.

Judge Carli Kierny announced Davis’s sentence at a hearing in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she chided him for the murder.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family, you don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him and just walk away from it, especially when that man is Tupac Shakur,” Kierny said. “The world never forgot about him and his death, and neither did Las Vegas.”

During the hearing, prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said that whatever sentence the court imposes, Davis is “guaranteed to die” behind bars.

For nearly three decades, Shakur’s death remained one of the music industry’s most notorious unsolved mysteries, prompting endless debate over who did it and why.

Davis had long been a suspect, but investigators lacked evidence to pursue an indictment.

The investigative deadlock shattered after Davis publicly boasted about his involvement in media interviews. He also recounted his role in the murder in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend.

Previously, Davis entered into a 2008 proffer agreement with federal law enforcement officers, granting him limited immunity for statements he made privately to investigators.