What we covered
• Guilty of murder: Duane “Keffe D” Davis was found guilty of first-degree murder Monday in the death of Tupac Shakur – a case that had remained unsolved for nearly three decades. Davis was found guilty of plotting the 1996 killing near the Las Vegas Strip, and he is the only person ever charged in the murder.
• Closing arguments: In closing arguments, the prosecution said Davis was a “shot caller” in the South Side Compton Crips, alleging he “went hunting” for Shakur. The defense said that Davis’ recounting of the shooting in his memoir was “fiction,” also focusing on missing investigative records and a lack of direct evidence.
• Sentencing outlook: Judge Carli Kierney is scheduled to sentence Davis on October 13. He could face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Our live coverage of closing arguments and the verdict in the Tupac murder trial has ended for the day.
A jury deliberated for about 3 hours before convicting Duane Davis. Catch up on the day
Monday was a jam-packed day of drama in the murder case against Duane Davis as prosecutors and Davis’ attorney gave fervent presentations of their cases during closing statements, concluding two weeks of testimony.
And following just under three hours of deliberations, the jurors reached their conclusion – Davis was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the death of Tupac Shakur.
Shakur’s family was emotional as the news came down. Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, the rapper’s sister, was seen crying quietly as family members held hands.
As the day closes, here is what you need to know:
- Prosecutors argued Davis and his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, “went hunting” for Shakur after Anderson was in a fight with Shakur and his entourage at the MGM Grand following a Mike Tyson boxing match, Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said. Davis led the charge through his role as a “shot caller” for the Southside Compton Crips and ultimately was driven by self-interest in his statements, Palal said.
- Prosecutors showed a chart during closing arguments comparing Davis’ four statements on what happened throughout the years.
- Defense attorney Michael Sanft said Davis was inconsistent in his statements, and that the evidence showed Davis was “telling you fiction.” In addition, the evidence tying Davis to the crime was incomplete, he said, noting the prosecution didn’t present documentation to show Davis was in Las Vegas at the time.
- Jury deliberations went for about three hours. The jury received instructions on how to handle the case in the morning before closing statements started.
- Davis’ sentencing is scheduled for October 13, where he faces life in prison without parole for his first-degree murder conviction. The prosecution considered trying to add a gang enhancement, but opted not to pursue it due to “witness logistics,” Palal said in court.
- Shakur’s loved ones were seen embracing after court finished, with the rapper’s stepbrother Mopreme Shakur raising his fist in the air.
‘I made peace with death a long time ago,’ Tupac Shakur told CNN in a 1995 interview
Almost a year before he was murdered in Las Vegas, Tupac Shakur told CNN in a 1995 interview that he had “made peace with death a long time ago” after he was shot multiple times in November 1994 during a robbery of the of Quad Recording Studios in Manhattan.
“I made peace with death a long time ago, so it wasn’t like I was like, ‘Oh my God, please don’t let me die,’ you know what I mean?” Shakur said.
“I was thinking, you know, no one’s gonna hurt me. I’m Tupac, they love me,” he said about not having a body guard at the time of the 1994 shooting.
“Even though I knew people wanted to kill me, so as far as that I thought about, how I did everything I wanted to do, now I have different goals and more goals. There are other things I want to accomplish,” Shakur said.
“At the time I did everything I wanted to do, you know, and I’m glad that I lived because after that I went number one,” he said. “After that we went double platinum, after that all of these things happened, after that I grew up, I got mature, you know, so I like that.”
CNN anchor looks back on the moment Tupac died
Thirty years ago, now-CNN anchor Laura Coates was in a bookstore when she heard the news: Tupac Shakur succumbed to his injuries from a shooting six days prior.
She was just applying for colleges, considering where to tour, when she heard the news, which “rang through the entire bookstore, from adults to teens to everyone in between,” she recounted after the trial ended today.
But it took almost 30 years “to try to get some semblance of justice,” Coates said. “And we know that the jury heard all the evidence as presented, not from the person who pulled the trigger, but from the person that prosecutors said, and the jury is now convinced, was the so-called shot caller.”
Tupac and Snoop Dogg speak with CNN three days before fatal Las Vegas shooting
Three days before Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in Las Vegas, he and Snoop Dogg spoke with CNN at the 1996 MTV Video Awards about music, accessories and the changing industry.
Tupac often talked about dying young. That’s part of why his murder still haunts us
The renewed attention on Tupac Shakur’s murder is also a reminder that he thought about his own mortality often — and said so, out loud, again and again.
A prolific lyricist, he used his music constantly to work through his thoughts on both life and death, rapping in “Smile” about wanting his own funeral turned into a party, and, on the posthumously released “Thugz Mansion,” imagining himself telling his mother not to cry because he was doing fine in heaven.
That there was still music left to release after he died speaks to how Shakur worked.
He spent long stretches in the studio recording, driven, according to his stepbrother Mopreme Shakur, by a sense that his time was limited.
Mopreme Shakur has said that if you listen closely through Shakur’s catalog, there’s a constant thread running through it — a “death chant,” he called it, always circling back to mortality.
Death Row Records producer remembers Shakur as a friend, not just a music legend
For much of the world, Tupac Shakur is an icon – the most famous rapper in the world at the time of his death, just 25 years old.
But Darryl Harper, a former producer at Death Row Records, remembers Shakur as a kindhearted friend who was quick to make others laugh.
“He allowed me into his life to know who he was,” Harper said, just minutes after Duane “Keffe D” Davis was found guilty of first-degree murder in Shakur’s killing. “There’s another person behind the curtain, the real person he was, and he cared about people.”
“He was so funny,” said Harper, who flew from Georgia to Las Vegas for the trial. “I just feel like a lot of people were robbed with not knowing that, because all they got was the rap and certain images of him.”
Harper says he was “crushed” when he learned the news of his friend’s death in 1996.
“I certainly felt cheated but I’m sure a lot of the world felt cheated,” he said. The feeling of injustice “just never went away” over the decades.
The guilty verdict, Harper said, provides a semblance of justice. He said the fact that 12 jurors, strangers to each other, reached a unanimous verdict after less than three hours gives him faith in their conclusion.
Harper called the prosecutor’s final message, in which he argued Davis wanted to “beat” the jurors just as he had beaten other obstacles, “brilliant.”
“I think that resonated with the jury, you know, that you just can’t beat everything,” he said.
Tupac Shakur's loved ones embrace, raise fist following Davis' guilty verdict
Tupac Shakur’s loved ones embraced, with one raising his fist, as people exited the courtroom following Duane “Keffe D” Davis’ guilty conviction in Tupac Shakur’s murder on Monday.
Duane Davis is convicted two weeks before anniversary of Tupac's death
In two weeks, on September 13, Tupac Shakur’s family will observe the anniversary of his death, knowing for the first time in three decades someone has been held accountable for his murder.
Shakur died at University Medical Center less than two miles from the Las Vegas courthouse where Davis was put on trial for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting.
Shakur’s family has been a constant presence in the courtroom throughout the trial. The rapper’ sister, Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur, appeared to wipe away tears as the verdict was read.
Duane Davis could face life in prison for first-degree murder conviction
Duane Davis could face life in prison without the possibility of parole after he was convicted of first-degree murder Monday.
Judge Carli Kierny will sentence him on October 13.
Sentencing for Davis scheduled for October 13
It will be six weeks before Duane “Keffe D” Davis learns his sentence for the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Judge Carli Kierny scheduled sentencing for October 13 shortly after prosecutors announced they were dropping their pursuit of a “gang enhancement” due to witness logistics.
Kierny ordered Davis to be held without bond pending the sentencing hearing.
Prosecutors decide to drop potential gang enhancement in Tupac trial
Prosecutors have decided to not proceed with a potential gang enhancement against Duane Davis due to “witness logistics,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal said in court.
There was a former officer that would’ve given about 10 to 15 minutes of testimony but “there are logistical issues on our end that prevent that from happening,” and prosecutors decided to not move forward with the enhancement, Palal said.
Davis says he will appeal
After being convicted of first-degree murder 30 years after the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur, Duane “Keffe D” Davis told the judge he wanted to appeal.
He also asked for his “stuff back,” referencing his phone and laptop.
Tupac's family emotional as guilty verdict is read
Family members of Tupac Shakur, the legendary rapper gunned down in 1996 near the Las Vegas Strip, appeared emotional as the guilty verdict against Duane “Keffe D” Davis was read.
There were no audible reactions in the courtroom, but Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur – the rapper’s sister – appeared to cry quietly.
Davis raises fist as he exits courtroom
Duane “Keffe D” Davis briefly raised his fist, looking into the audience, as he exited the courtroom after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Tupac Shakur.
Davis appeared straight-faced as the verdict was read.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis convicted of first-degree murder in death of Tupac Shakur
Duane “Keffe D” Davis was convicted Monday of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang in the killing of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
Davis is the only person ever charged in Shakur’s 1996 fatal shooting near the Las Vegas Strip. Prosecutors didn’t allege Davis fired the shots that killed Shakur but accused him of orchestrating the killing.
Jury reaches verdict in murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis
A Las Vegas jury has reached a verdict Monday in the murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis, accused of orchestrating the fatal shooting of hip-hop legend Tupac Shakur.
The jury deliberated for about three hours.
Davis is charged with one count of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang. Prosecutors alleged Davis devised the killing.
The verdict is expected to be read in court once everyone is back in the courtroom.
Hear Tupac speak to CNN about his critics
During an interview with CNN on October 24, 1995, Tupac Shakur spoke about his release from jail, his work and the public’s perception of him.
The shadow of Biggie Smalls' unsolved death hangs over Tupac's murder trial
Although the high-profile murder trial of Duane “Keffe D” Davis is focused on the allegation that he orchestrated the killing of Tupac Shakur, the name Biggie Smalls keeps coming up.
Within the first hour of opening statements, he was mentioned by prosecutors. Two of the witnesses who testified were originally assigned to investigate the death of Smalls, who was born Christopher Wallace, not Shakur’s. And Davis wrote in his 2019 memoir that he was nearby when both of the men were killed.
The question of whether the two murders were related was first raised on March 9, 1997, the very day Wallace was shot to death in his vehicle while stopped at a red light outside a music industry party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Although people looking for clear connections between the back-to-back murders of former friends that shook up the hip-hop industry have been frustrated for nearly 30 years, Davis’ trial has exposed just how tightly connected the investigations became, despite the unraveling of their friendship.
Tupac's family has been a constant presence in the courtroom
While some people sat in the courtroom for only one day to punch their ticket of pop culture curiosities, Tupac Shakur’s stepbrother Mopreme Shakur and sister Sekyiwa “Set” Shakur showed up every day, surrounded by family, friends and a representative of the Clark County District Attorney’s office, who carefully weaved them through a back door of the courtroom away from reporters at each break.
The family sat grim-faced and rarely physically reacted to the extensive testimony about gang violence and Tupac Shakur’s doomed trip to Las Vegas. But by the end of the first day, Set Shakur acknowledged the strain.
“It was just a whole lot,” she told CNN. “A lot of information to take in.”
During a 2017 recording between Duane Davis and documentary producers that was aired in court, he was asked whether he wanted to apologize to Shakur’s family.
Set Shakur gave an intense, narrowed glare toward Davis as the recording played in court. A minute later, she pulled a tissue from a box placed in front of her and dabbed her eyes, taking several deep breaths before she briefly left the courtroom.
