The trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis over the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur begins Monday in Las Vegas, nearly three decades after the hip-hop star was fatally shot in a drive-by attack.
The trial is expected to last about a month and will focus on whether Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, orchestrated the killing and supplied the firearm used in the attack.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that Davis ordered the shooting, although the trial may not establish conclusively who fired the shots that killed Shakur.
Shakur, also known as 2Pac, was shot on September 7, 1996, while travelling through Las Vegas after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand. He died six days later at the age of 25.
The rapper was one of the most influential figures of the 1990s hip-hop scene and was closely associated with the rivalry between the West Coast and East Coast rap communities.
Shakur, known for songs including “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me,” had signed with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, founded by Marion “Suge” Knight.
The case is also expected to revisit tensions between Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records, the New York-based label associated with Sean “Diddy” Combs and rapper Christopher “The Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace, who was killed in Los Angeles in March 1997.
According to prosecutors, tensions escalated after Shakur and Knight confronted and assaulted Davis’s nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand following the Tyson fight.
Later that night, authorities say a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and other occupants pulled alongside the vehicle carrying Shakur in Las Vegas. Gunfire was then directed at Shakur’s car, leaving the rapper critically injured.
The investigation remained unresolved for years, with authorities struggling to secure sufficient evidence to make an arrest.
The case was revived after Davis discussed the events in his 2019 memoir. He wrote that he was seated in the front of the Cadillac and had handed a firearm to people in the back seat, but did not identify who fired the shots.
The other people believed to have been in the vehicle have since died.
Davis was arrested in September 2023 and has denied killing Shakur. In a 2025 interview from prison, he maintained that he was innocent and said investigators had insufficient evidence against him.
He has also claimed that he was in Los Angeles on the night Shakur was killed and disputed details contained in his memoir, saying his co-author conducted additional research and wrote much of the book.
Davis’s lawyers have sought to prevent prosecutors from introducing the memoir as evidence, as well as statements he made to police in 2008 when he was questioned as a witness.
The case has also drawn renewed attention following a television documentary in which Davis reportedly discussed an allegation that Sean Combs offered him $1 million to kill Shakur.
The trial is expected to examine the evidence surrounding one of the most prominent unresolved killings in music history and could provide further details about the events that led to Shakur’s death.
