Duane ‘Keffe D’ Davis sentenced for orchestrating Tupac Shakur’s murder

Duane Davis
Sentenced FILE PHOTO: Duane Davis appears in Clark County District Court during a calendar call and motion hearing for his upcoming trial at the Regional Justice Center on August 04, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Davis was indicted on a murder charge in connection with the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The man who put the murder of Tupac Shakur into motion has been sentenced to several decades in prison.

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Duane “Keffe D” Davis was sentenced Tuesday to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the rapper’s murder more than 30 years ago, The Associated Press reported.

CNN noted he has 731 days of credit for time served. That amounts to about two years.

Davis was convicted of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon in August, the only person charged in Shakur’s death.

The rapper’s murder was unsolved for years until the South Side Compton Crips published a tell-all in 2019 and sat down for interviews.

“I’m one of the only living eyewitnesses to Tupac’s killing, who also knows the much larger story around the reasons why both Tupac and Biggie were killed,” he said in the book, “Compton Street Legend,” according to CNN.

He said that Shakur and his entourage beat up Davis’ nephew before shooting, which was in retaliation for the beating. Davis said he was a passenger in a separate car that pulled up to the one that Shakur was in, handed a gun to a person in the backseat who fired the shots.

Davis’ attorney said there was a lack of evidence linking his client to the shooting, and said that Davis was a liar who was trying to cash in on the crime.

Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Davis was trying to profit off Shakur’s murder, which he committed, and asked for the maximum sentence.

Davis’ attorney said they plan to appeal the verdict, claiming prosecutors waited too long to bring the case to court.

Shakur was gunned down the night of Sept. 7, 1996. He died several days later. Marion “Suge” Knight was in the vehicle with Shakur and survived.

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