Jury selection opens Monday in the long-awaited trial of the man charged with orchestrating the killing of Tupac Shakur, the rapper whose death in 1996 became one of music's most enduring mysteries. Duane "Keffe D" Davis, 63, will stand trial in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote or assist a criminal gang.
Decades of speculation
Shakur was 25 when he was shot on September 7, 1996, while riding in a black BMW with music executive Marion "Suge" Knight near the Las Vegas Strip. Assailants in a white Cadillac pulled alongside and opened fire. Shakur died six days later in hospital. Knight survived.
The case went cold for decades. Interest revived after Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips, co-authored a memoir titled Compton Street Legends that described his role in the incident. The book stated Davis obtained a handgun and placed it on the back seat of the Cadillac but did not identify the shooter. Davis was arrested in 2023 and has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors do not allege Davis fired the weapon. Their case rests on the argument that he ordered the killing and supplied the gun. The suspected triggerman, Davis's nephew Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, died in a gang-related shooting in Compton, California, in 1998. He was never charged. The two other men in the Cadillac, Deandrae "Freaky" Smith and Terry "Bubble Up" Brown, have also since died.
Witness list spans eras
Between 35 and 45 witnesses are expected to testify during the roughly month-long proceeding before Judge Carli Kierny. The list includes former Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman, members of Shakur's family, and Denvonta Lee, a South Side Crip affiliate who previously testified before a grand jury about connections between rival gangs and the record labels Death Row Records and Bad Boy Records at the time of the shooting.
Also slated to appear is Leonard Jefferson, the California man who captured the last known photograph of Shakur minutes before the attack. Lee has testified that Anderson did not have a clear shot and that Smith took the gun and fired, after Davis passed the weapon to Anderson.
Knight, the last living witness to the shooting, is serving a 28-year sentence in California for a 2015 fatal hit-and-run. He has previously said he would not testify. Defence attorney Michael Sanft told The Associated Press that Knight would be a favourable witness for the defence if he chose to appear.
Public seating in the courtroom will be allocated by lottery. A separate overflow room with a live video feed will be available.
Based on reporting by Global News.