Duane Davis sentenced to 40 years in prison for orchestrating Tupac’s murder
The verdict comes three decades after the rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas Continue reading...
Former gang boss Duane "Keffe D" Davis has been sentenced to at least 40 years in prison for orchestrating the murder of Tupac Shakur in 1996.
The verdict was made during a sentencing hearing on Tuesday, October 13, after the 63-year-old was found guilty of orchestrating the rapper’s murder last month by a jury in Las Vegas.
Davis was found guilty of instigating, but not conducting, the murder of Tupac Shakur on September 7, 1996, in a drive-by shooting. He says that he will appeal the verdict.
Read this next: Tupac's family launches wrongful death lawsuit against alleged murderers
Prosecutors said that while he did not fire the gun himself, he was the one who ordered the shooting and supplied the weapon. They argued that he has spent decades bragging about the crime.
The former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang previously admitted in a 2008 recorded police interview that he was in the car at the time that his nephew, Orlando Anderson, fired the gun at Tupac.
Ahead of Tuesday’s sentencing, Tupac’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, asked the judge to give Davis the maximum sentence, saying that the murder has "crippled my family".
Read this next: Tupac’s murder was unsolved for decades because of his race, his brother says
She said that the rapper "had so much promise and intentions for a better world," and wanted to support the community around him. "|He was who God trusted to take care of me."
"It was hard sitting, listening over and over and over again to someone describe, bit by bit, how they hunted Tupac Amaru Shakur down," she said, adding that she wants Davis to "contemplate" what he’s done in prison.
It concluded a decades-long mystery around the murder of Tupac, which has left fans speculating about the killing and motive for almost 30 years.
A weekly rundown of everything you need to know in music and culture