A trial slated to start next week could answer longstanding questions about the slaying of hip hop icon Tupac Shakur, one of the most notorious killings in recent Las Vegas history.
Shakur, 25, was shot four times on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, near the Strip. He died Sept. 13 at University Medical Center.
No one was arrested in connection with the killing — until 2023, when police took Duane Davis into custody outside his home in Henderson.
Now, 30 years after Shakur’s death, 63-year-old Davis is scheduled to face a Las Vegas jury that will determine whether or not he orchestrated the killing. He was arrested in 2023.
Jury selection is expected to begin Monday, and the trial may stretch into early September.
In a memoir, Davis discussed the shooting of Shakur and his life as a leader of the Southside Compton Crips, a Los Angeles gang. He and his attorney have since disputed the authorship of the book, which involved a ghostwriter.
Davis, who is known as “Keffe D,” had made numerous other statements about the case, including in media and law enforcement interviews.
The memoir, Compton Street Legend, says Davis “tossed” a gun into the back seat of the Cadillac in which he was riding at the time. Then, a man in the back seat used the gun to commit the shooting, according to the book.
Prosecutors have said Davis was the “shot-caller” who came up with the plan to exact revenge on the rapper and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight in retaliation for an attack against his nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that night at the MGM Grand.
Prosecutors have also said Davis’ own words in the book and other public statements drove a renewed effort to investigate Shakur’s killing.
“A defendant cannot market his confession and then demand that the courthouse treat it as confidential,” they said in a recent filing.
District Judge Carli Kierny, who will preside over the trial, previously rejected a request from defense attorney Michael Sanft to suppress the book.
Though it is unclear exactly how Sanft will attempt to defend Davis at trial, one previous attorney on the case, confronted with Davis’ past statements, took the unusual approach of attacking his own client’s credibility.
Defense lawyer Carl Arnold described Davis as “a liar” who could not be trusted.
“Just because he says he’s here, doesn’t mean that he was here,” he said previously.
Robert Draskovich, another attorney who represented Davis, said the defendant put his name on the book based on “a financial incentive.”
“It’s not so much an issue of being a liar in that we live in a society now of dual personas,” Draskovich told reporters last year. “We have public personas. We have personas in reality. We have online personas.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
