Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former South Side Compton Crips leader convicted of orchestrating Tupac’s murder in 1996, has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
Judge Carli Kierny handed down the sentence on Tuesday, October 13, in a Las Vegas courtroom. This comes three decades after the shooting near the Las Vegas Strip.
Davis, one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, was arrested in September 2024. His trial began in August in a Las Vegas court — 30 years after the fatal shooting and a week after jury selection. 
How the Keffe D sentence breaks down
Kierny imposed 20 years to life for first-degree murder, followed by a mandatory consecutive 20 years to life for the deadly weapon enhancement. Davis, 63, received credit for 731 days already served.
At the start of the hearing, Davis pleaded not guilty to a murder charge involving the use of a deadly weapon in connection with gang activity. The jurors then deliberated for about three hours, after which they found Davis guilty of murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He was found guilty of the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. In their verdict, the 12 jurors agreed that Davis was guilty of orchestrating the murder of Tupac.
“Count one, murder with use of a deadly weapon, guilty of first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon,” the foreperson of the jury announced to the court.
When Carli Kierny, the presiding judge, asked Davis if he had anything to say on Tuesday, he replied:
“I’m good. I’m gonna appeal this case for sure.”
Before handing down the sentence, Kierny told him:
“You don’t get to take a man from his family. You don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him, and just walk away from it. Especially when that man is Tupac Shakur. The world never forgot about him and his death.”
The hearing also heard from Tupac’s family. His stepbrother asked the judge for the longest possible sentence. Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo added that Davis is “guaranteed to die” behind bars.
From a 1996 shooting to a 2026 sentence
Tupac was 25 when he was shot on September 7, 1996, after a Mike Tyson fight in Las Vegas. He died six days later. Davis has been in custody since his September 2023 arrest. After a trial that began in mid-August, a jury found him guilty on August 31 after less than three hours of deliberation.
Prosecutors never said Davis fired the gun. Nevada law allows someone who helps commit a murder to be held just as responsible as the person who pulls the trigger. Instead, they built much of their case on Davis’s own words in a federal proffer, police interviews and his published memoir. However, his lawyers argued those accounts were fictionalised and told for profit.
Davis has said his nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, pulled the trigger. Anderson and the other two people allegedly in the Cadillac have died, leaving Davis as the only person ever charged and convicted over Tupac’s killing. He is expected to push ahead with his appeal.
For Tupac’s family and fans, the sentence closes a chapter that stayed open for nearly 30 years. The case also generated interest in hip-hop circles because the 1997 murder of The Notorious B.I.G. remains unsolved.
READ: Imade: “How Can a Minor Drive on the Highway?” Davido Faces Backlash Over Daughter’s Driving
About The Author
