Who Is Duane Davis, the Compton Shot-Caller Now Convicted Nearly 30 Years After Tupac's Death?

A Las Vegas jury has convicted Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, 63, of murder with a deadly weapon in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur. The Compton shot-caller now convicted nearly 30 years after Tupac's death was found guilty after jurors spent a few hours on a case built on his interviews and a 2019 memoir.

Prosecutors said he organised the drive-by but did not fire. Sentencing is set for 13 October, with a possible life term.

Who Is Duane Davis, the Compton Shot-Caller

Duane Keith Davis grew up in Compton and, prosecutors told the Clark County court, became a leader of the South Side Compton Crips. By September 1996 they said he was the man who could sanction a shooting.

That night Shakur, then 25, and Death Row Records founder Marion Suge Knight left a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand after a brawl with Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson.

Hours later a white Cadillac drew alongside Knight's BMW near Flamingo Road and Koval Lane. Shakur was hit several times and died six days later. Knight survived.

Prosecutors said Davis sat in the front passenger seat, obtained a .40-calibre Glock and passed it back. They alleged Anderson fired. Anderson was killed in Compton in 1998. The other men named as occupants of the Cadillac are also dead.

Davis was the first person charged, arrested on 29 September 2023 outside a home in Henderson, Nevada. He pleaded not guilty.

A Memoir That Reopened a Cold Case

The file stayed cold for years. Interest revived after Davis spoke in public. In recorded interviews from 2008 onwards, and in the book Compton Street Legend, he placed himself at the scene and described handing over the gun as retaliation.

A Las Vegas detective later read passages to a grand jury. Chief deputy district attorney Marc DiGiacomo told a hearing that Davis would probably never have been prosecuted had he not written the book.

Davis later said the account was fiction spun for money and denied he had even been in Las Vegas that night. Defence lawyer Michael Sanft called the state's story fiction and argued there was no physical evidence putting his client in the Cadillac.

Under Nevada law a person who aids a killing can be convicted as a principal. Jurors heard 24 prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses over nine days. Davis did not give evidence.

In a police recording played at trial he claimed Sean Combs had once offered $1.0 million (£0.7 million) to have Shakur and Knight killed, an assertion treated as his words rather than proven fact.

Jury Convicts After Hours of Deliberation

Closing speeches finished on 31 August. Prosecutor Binu Palal told the panel Davis had told 'anybody who would listen' that he was responsible.

Sixteen people sat through the case; twelve decided it. They returned a guilty verdict after a few hours. Relatives of Shakur reacted in the courtroom. Davis said 'I would like to appeal this matter' and asked for his belongings.

He is already serving 16 to 40 months for a jail fight in 2025. Judge Carli Kierny will pass sentence on 13 October.

The conviction of Duane Davis, the Compton shot-caller, does not identify a living shooter. He remains in custody at a Nevada prison pending sentence and has said he will challenge the finding before the court sets the term next month.