Nearly 30 years after the murder of Tupac Shakur (Tupac Shakur) in Las Vegas, the trial began for the only person charged with the death of the iconic rapper. Prosecutors presented 63-year-old Dwayne “Keffe D” Davis as the man who, although he did not pull the trigger, planned and ordered the murder in retaliation for the beating of his nephew a few hours earlier. The defense dismisses the charge as “fiction” based on a flawed investigation spanning decades.
The first day of the trial took the jury back to September 1996, a time when the rivalry between the East Coast and the West Coast (West Coast) dominated the hip-hop scene, and clashes between the Bloods and Crips gangs had made their way into song lyrics and newspaper headlines.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Tupac was just 25 years old when he was shot while riding in a car after Mike Tyson’s boxing match on September 7, 1996. He died six days later.
“He didn’t pull the trigger, but he planned the murder”
Davis, a former high-ranking member of the South Side Compton Crips, has pleaded not guilty. The prosecution, however, describes him as the “field commander” of the group that carried out the attack and argues that he was the one who “ordered the killing” of Tupac.
“Let’s be clear. Dwayne Davis did not pull the trigger. However, he planned the attack in retaliation for the beating of his nephew,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told the jury.
According to the prosecution, the motive was a altercation that had taken place a few hours earlier in Las Vegas between Tupac and Davis’s nephew, Orlando Anderson. Prosecutors argue that Davis believed the attack on his nephew could not go “unanswered.”
The lead prosecutor in the murder case against Duane “Keffe D” Davis told a jury this morning that Davis was associated with Sean “Puffy” Combs when he took part in Tupac Shakur’s fatal shooting in Las Vegas in 1996.
"One of the connections that Duane Davis gets through his… pic.twitter.com/mk93vm7lKG
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The White Cadillac and the Fateful Encounter
The prosecution alleges that Davis obtained a gun and arranged for two cars to head to a Las Vegas nightclub. In one of them, a white Cadillac, there were three other men, including Anderson.
According to Palal, the group had decided to buy alcohol and return to the Las Vegas Strip to have fun. On the way, however, he spotted a motorcade and saw Tupac in one of the cars along with Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.
The men then allegedly made a U-turn and approached the rapper’s car. According to the prosecution’s account, Davis, who was sitting in the passenger seat, handed the gun to Anderson, who fired at Tupac.
Keffe D’s book takes center stage
A key element of the case is what Davis himself has stated over the years. Prosecutors pointed out that he made a series of statements about the case between 1998 and 2003, and in 2019 he published a memoir in which he described the night of the murder in detail.
In the book and in interviews, he had claimed that he was in the Cadillac from which Tupac was shot. He also stated that he gave the gun to his nephew, who shot the rapper.
The defense argues that the book contains fictional elements added for commercial reasons and that Davis did not write the entire book himself. A judge, however, has ruled that it may be used as evidence in the trial.
The lead prosecutor in the murder case against Duane "Keffe D" Davis told a jury this morning that Davis was associated with Sean "Diddy" Combs when he took part in Tupac Shakur's 1996 fatal shooting in Las Vegas.
pic.twitter.com/UBBMsRra5d
— Raphousetv (RHTV) (@raphousetv2) August 18, 2026
“What evidence do they have after 30 years?”
The 63-year-old’s lawyers attacked the credibility of the long-running police investigation, asking why it took nearly three decades to bring charges.
“What real evidence do they actually have after 30 years?” his attorney, Michael Saft, asked the jury, adding: “No one is confirming any of this.”
The defense cites incomplete police reports, questionable evidence, and a “biased, sloppy, and incomplete” investigation. It also argues that the prosecution is relying on unreliable witnesses with criminal records, financial motives, and contradictory testimonies, some of whom have changed their stories over time.
“We’ll take care of it,” Tupac had said
The prosecution’s first witness was Gary Dale, who was serving with the Las Vegas Police Department at the time and accompanied the seriously injured Tupac in the ambulance.
According to his testimony, the rapper refused to provide any information about what had happened or who had shot him.
“We’ll take care of it,” he reportedly told him.
This lack of cooperation had been one of the biggest obstacles to the investigation for years. The police argued that in the world of gangs, “silence means survival,” while people close to Tupac accused the authorities of initially treating them as suspects and failing to follow up on crucial leads.
“We heard the gunshots, and chaos ensued.”
Ingrid Stokes, who was in the area on the night of the attack, also testified in court.
As she recounted, she and her friends ran into Suge Knight and Tupac, and Knight suggested they follow him to a club. As they drove through the streets of Las Vegas, they noticed a car behind them trying to pass them.
At one point, they stopped at a traffic light and decided to switch drivers because they were concerned about the other vehicle.
“We had leaned over to unbuckle our seat belts when we heard the gunshots,” Stokes testified. “Chaos ensued.”
The trial began after a week of jury selection and is expected to last several weeks. Witnesses, experts, and investigators are set to testify in court, and it is possible that well-known figures from the music industry may also take the stand.
Source: Protothema.gr
