Duane Keffe D Davis found guilty of rapper Tupac Shakur's 1996 murder

Nearly 30 years after Tupac Shakur was shot in a Las Vegas drive-by, the case has produced its first conviction. Duane Keffe D Davis, the former South Side Compton Crips leader who was the only person ever charged over the 1996 killing, was found guilty on Aug. 31 of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon, with intent to promote or assist a criminal gang.

The Clark County jury took under three hours. Davis, 63, briefly raised a fist and looked at the gallery as he left the courtroom, and members of Shakur's family were present, with his sister Sekyiwa Set Shakur weeping quietly as the verdict was read. Sentencing is set for Oct. 13, and he could face life in prison.

Prosecutors never alleged that Davis fired the shots. Their case was that he was the shot caller: that he obtained the gun, was inside the white Cadillac and directed the younger men in it. Much of the evidence was his own account of himself over the years, in statements to investigators, in documentary appearances and in his 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend.

The defence argued those accounts were exaggerated or invented for money and attention, and pointed to the absence of physical evidence independently placing Davis in the Cadillac. Davis did not testify. Suge Knight, who was driving the BMW Shakur was riding in, refused to take the stand.

The events themselves date to Sept. 7, 1996, when Shakur and others beat up Davis's nephew Orlando Baby Lane Anderson after a casino confrontation. Later that night a white Cadillac pulled alongside the BMW at a red light and Shakur was hit several times. He died six days later at 25. The alleged gunman, Anderson, was killed in 1998, and the other men believed to have been in the car are also dead.

Davis asked to appeal within minutes of hearing the verdict. "I'd like to have all my stuff back," he told Judge Carli Kierny, listing computers and phones seized in the investigation, and said he wanted to appeal the matter. The judge told him he can file, but only after sentencing.

The trial also revived questions about Diddy, after jurors heard recordings in which Davis claimed Combs had offered $1 million to have Shakur and Knight killed. Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said afterwards that prosecutors do not currently have sufficient evidence to charge anyone else, while leaving the door open if more emerges. Diddy has consistently denied any involvement.

Interest in the room was high throughout: Cam'ron, who lives in Las Vegas, turned up in the public gallery on day eight, seated a few rows behind Davis. The court had been running a daily seat lottery from an overflow room. This site followed the case from the trial opening in Las Vegas through Keefe D saying Diddy had no role in the killing and Suge Knight saying he would wreck the trial from the stand, one of the longest running hip-hop legal stories on record.