The trial of former gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis over the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur has begun in Las Vegas, nearly three decades after the hip-hop star was fatally shot.
Davis, 63, is accused of orchestrating the drive-by shooting that killed Shakur, one of America’s most high-profile unsolved murder cases.
Prosecutors allege that Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, ordered the killing and supplied the gun used in the attack.
He has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
The trial is expected to last about a month, although it may not establish who actually fired the shots that killed Shakur.
The rapper, known professionally as 2Pac, was 25 when he was shot on 7 September 1996 while travelling in a BMW driven by Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight.
The shooting happened hours after Shakur and Knight attended a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand casino in Las Vegas.
Prosecutors say the attack followed a confrontation at the casino in which Shakur and others assaulted Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’s nephew and a member of the Crips.
They allege Davis then sought revenge.
Later that night, prosecutors say, a white Cadillac carrying Davis, Anderson and other men pulled alongside Shakur’s vehicle.
Gunmen opened fire from the Cadillac, striking Shakur several times. He died six days later from his injuries.
Case revived decades later
The investigation struggled for years because of a lack of evidence, but it was revived after Davis published a memoir detailing his involvement in the events surrounding the shooting.
Davis acknowledged being in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and said he handed a pistol to people sitting in the back.
However, he did not identify the person who fired the fatal shots.
The other men believed to have been inside the vehicle have since died.
Davis was arrested in 2023 following the renewed investigation.
He has since disputed his previous accounts and insists he had nothing to do with Shakur’s murder.
“I’m innocent. I ain’t killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody,” Davis told ABC News last year from prison.
“They don’t have no evidence against me. They can’t even put me in Las Vegas.”
Davis now claims he was in Los Angeles on the night Shakur was killed and says he never read the memoir attributed to him.
“I just gave him details of my life,” he said. “And he went and did his little investigation and wrote the book on his own.”
His lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent prosecutors from using the memoir as evidence. They also challenged statements Davis made to police while being interviewed as a witness.
Murder linked to famous hip-hop rivalry
The trial is expected to revisit the bitter rivalry between the East Coast and West Coast hip-hop scenes during the 1990s.
Shakur was one of the biggest stars associated with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, founded by Knight.
The label was closely associated with the Mob Piru gang, which was part of the wider Bloods alliance.
Its rival, Bad Boy Records, was based on the US East Coast and was founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs. It featured rapper Christopher Wallace, known as The Notorious B.I.G., who was also murdered months after Shakur.
Shakur became one of the defining figures of 1990s hip-hop, with songs including “California Love” and “All Eyez on Me”.
His death has generated decades of speculation among fans over who ordered and carried out the shooting.
Jury selection is expected to take about a week before the trial moves into its main proceedings.
Whatever the outcome, the case may not answer every question surrounding Shakur’s death.
His stepbrother, Maurice Shakur, has also filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, arguing that people involved in the killing have gone unpunished for decades.
“There remain individuals who were involved in Tupac’s murder who, for 30 years, have not been held accountable for their crimes,” the lawsuit says.
The civil case also refers to a television documentary in which Davis reportedly told police that Combs had offered $1m for Shakur’s killing. Combs, who is currently serving a prison sentence, has denied involvement in the rapper’s death.
