Former gang leader Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis has been sentenced to 40 years after he was found guilty of first-degree murder and orchestrating the 1996 murder of rap icon Tupac Shakur.
Tupac was killed on September 7, 1996, after suffering a gunshot wound from a drive-by shooting and died six days after being put on life support.
Davis, one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was arrested in September 2024, with his trial beginning in August in a Las Vegas court, 30 years after the fatal shooting and a week after jury selection.
“You don’t get to take a man from his family,” the judge told Davis in announcing his decades behind bars. Acknowledging how long it has taken for justice to be served in the de@th of the hip hop icon, she added: “You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future, from him …especially when that man is Tupac Shakur.”
The prosecution asked for the maximum prison sentence against the alleged mastermind.
“He’s the only one who’s trying to profit off a killing that he committed, and for that he doesn’t deserve the minimum sentence,” prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo told the court. “He deserves the maximum possible sentence because he’s earned it through his actions, his behaviour, and who he is as he stands here today.”
Davis’s attorney, Michael Sanft, asked that he be sentenced to 40 years in prison but noted they will appeal his conviction.
Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa, and brother, Maurice, gave statements before Judge Carli Kierny laid down the sentence.
“The loss of Tupac for a long time crippled my entire family emotionally, mentally,” Sekyiwa said. “I’ve been hospitalised multiple times for depression, suicidal ideation, and trauma.”
“I miss my brother. I do. I miss his skin. I miss his scars on his head. He had a strawberry on his chest. I miss the way he ate. Miss his recipe for chicken. Miss his laugh,” she added.