Why is a man being tried for the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur 30 years after his death?

For nearly three decades, the murder of Tupac Shakur remained one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of hip hop. The New York rapper — considered one of the greatest of all time — died in September 1996, at the age of 25, after being shot four times while traveling through Las Vegas with Marion “Suge” Knight, co-founder of Death Row Records. Now, a man is on trial for that crime, and one of the main pieces of evidence against him is the account he himself gave years ago of what happened.

Duane Keffe D. Davis, 63, is accused of organizing the attack on Shakur, although he is not charged with being the one who fired the shots. The prosecution argues that Davis obtained the gun used in the shooting, participated in the plan to attack the rapper, and was inside the white Cadillac from which the shots were fired. His nephew, Orlando Baby Lane Anderson, is identified by prosecutors as the man who took the gun and fired at the BMW in which Shakur and Knight were traveling.

To understand why Davis is on trial now, we have to go back to September 7, 1996. That night, Tupac was in Las Vegas with Knight to attend a Mike Tyson boxing match at the MGM Grand. After the fight, members of the Death Row Records entourage got into a fight with Anderson, whom they identified as a member of the South Side Compton Crips, a gang.

According to the prosecution, that confrontation was the trigger for what happened hours later. Anderson was Davis’s nephew, and, according to the prosecutors’ account, Davis’s group decided to retaliate against Shakur and Knight.

Later, while Tupac and Knight were driving through Las Vegas in a black BMW, a white Cadillac pulled up alongside their vehicle. One of the occupants opened fire on them. Shakur was struck by four bullets, and Knight was wounded by shrapnel from the gunfire. The rapper was taken to a hospital, where he remained in critical condition until he died six days later, on September 13, 1996, from internal bleeding and complications resulting from his injuries.

The investigation never brought a defendant to trial. Anderson was considered one of the main suspects for years, but he died in a shooting in Compton in 1998 without ever having been charged with the crime.

The case remained unresolved for decades, while Tupac’s stature grew until he became one of the most influential artists in the history of rap. His death was also linked to the rivalry between the West Coast and East Coast hip-hop scenes in the United States, particularly due to his feud with artists associated with Bad Boy Records, including The Notorious B.I.G., who was also murdered in 1997 in a case that is still unsolved.

A trial in the 21st century

The answer to why the trial is taking place now lies, in large part, with Davis himself. Although for years there was no formal defendant in the murder case, Davis began speaking publicly about that night. He did so in interviews, podcasts, and documentaries, and in 2019 he published the book Compton Street Legend, in which he recounted episodes from his past as a member of the South Side Compton Crips and described his version of what happened on the night of Tupac’s death.

In those statements, Davis placed himself inside the Cadillac that followed Shakur’s vehicle and admitted to having participated in planning the attack. The police also had a recorded interview from 2008 in which Davis described to investigators how the shooting unfolded.

Those statements ultimately became a central piece of the investigation. In 2023, Davis was arrested and subsequently formally charged with murder. He pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution argues that Davis’s own words link him to the attack. The defense, on the other hand, claims that his statements are unreliable and that Davis exaggerated or fabricated his involvement to gain notoriety and sell his story.

The trial’s first week

The most significant moment of the trial’s first week came on Thursday, when the jury listened for hours to a police interview recorded in 2008. Davis had been questioned at that time by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department in connection with the murder of The Notorious B.I.G. The officers told him that anything he said during that conversation would not be used against him. At the time, Davis was considered a person of interest in that investigation, although he was later ruled out.

During the interview, Davis described how he and three other men — Anderson, Deandre “Big Dre” Smith, and Terrence Brown — were traveling in a white Cadillac on the night of the murder. After the altercation at the MGM Grand, the group was reportedly looking for members of Shakur’s entourage when they heard people shouting “Tupac!” and saw the rapper inside a car.

Davis explained that the Cadillac turned around and pulled up alongside the BMW. According to his account, he was carrying a gun but wasn’t in a good position to shoot, so he tried to hand it to Smith. Smith refused to take it, and Anderson ended up keeping it.

According to the defendant, Anderson rolled down the window and began firing at Shakur and Knight’s vehicle. Davis said he heard several shots and even thought Knight had been killed after a bullet struck him in the head. After the attack, he recounted, the group abandoned the Cadillac near the Carriage House and left the gun on one of the tires to return for it the next day.

The defense’s strange strategy

The strategy employed by Davis’s attorneys is one of the most unusual aspects of the trial. Instead of trying to prove that their client’s statements are true, the defense argues that they should not be taken as a reliable account of what happened.

During his opening statement, attorney Michael Sanft dismissed the stories Davis had told over the years as “bullshit” and asked the jurors what independent evidence exists to prove that those statements are true.

The argument is that Davis may have exaggerated his role in the murder to boost his fame and sell Compton Street Legend. However, this strategy also creates a problem for the defense: several parts of his public account match what he said in the 2008 police interview.

There are also some differences between the two versions. In his book, Davis wrote that he had placed the gun on the back seat before they came across Shakur’s car. In the police interview, he said he tried to hand the weapon to Smith as they pulled up alongside the BMW, and that Anderson ultimately took it.

He also changed his account of how the shooting began. In the book, he claimed that Shakur made a move toward the seat and that one of the men in the Cadillac then began shooting. In the 2008 interview, he did not say that Shakur had drawn a gun or fired first.

The prosecution does not need to prove that Davis was the one who pulled the trigger. Its case is based on the fact that he participated in planning the murder and provided the means to carry it out. Nevada law allows a person who participates in a crime to be held liable for murder even if they are not the one who directly fired the shot.

The trial, which began this week after a jury of 10 women and six men was selected, could last up to six weeks. During the first few days, the jurors also heard from former members of the Death Row circle and Los Angeles gangs, as well as testimony about the injuries that caused Shakur’s death and photographs from his autopsy.

The crux of the case is becoming increasingly clear: the prosecution wants the jury to believe that Davis was telling the truth when he spoke about his involvement before being charged; the defense needs to convince them of exactly the opposite.

Nearly 30 years after that night in Las Vegas, that difference could determine whether Tupac Shakur’s murder finally results in a conviction.

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