Authored by Chris Summers via The Epoch Times,
Prosecutors are hopeful of obtaining the first conviction in relation to the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur—a crime that has been unsolved for 30 years—with jury selection due to start in Las Vegas on Aug. 10.
Shakur, who was 25 when he died, is widely considered to be one of the most influential rappers in the history of the genre.
He had five No. 1 albums on the Billboard chart, was nominated for six Grammy awards, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.
Shakur, who was from Los Angeles, was fatally wounded in a drive-by shooting just off the Las Vegas Strip on Sept. 7, 1996, shortly after a heavyweight title fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. He died six days later in a hospital.
The head of Shakur’s Death Row Records, Marion “Suge” Knight, who was driving the car, survived the shooting.
Over the past three decades, Knight and, by association, Shakur, have been repeatedly linked with the Mob Piru Bloods gang in Los Angeles.
In Sept. 2023, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was arrested and later charged with Shakur’s murder.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis—who is accused of the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur—arrives for a hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas on Jan. 21, 2025. Ethan Miller/Pool Photo via AP
Seven months before his death, Shakur had produced his 10th rap album, All Eyez on Me, and at the time of his death was involved in a beef with East Coast rappers, including Biggie Smalls, and his producer Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Six months later, Smalls—real name Christopher Wallace—was fatally shot in Los Angeles in a crime that also remains unsolved.
Defendant’s Memoir is Key Evidence
In 2019, 63-year-old Davis co-authored a memoir, “Compton Street Legend,” in which he wrote about Shakur’s death.
In the book, Davis said he was a leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang at the time of the rapper’s death.
Davis alleged Combs, who ran Bad Boy Records, offered him money to kill Knight and Shakur.
Combs—who was jailed in October 2025 for 50 months after being convicted of transporting individuals for prostitution or other illegal sex acts—has always denied any involvement in the shooting.
Davis faces one charge of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further, or assist a criminal gang.
The trial, at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, with Judge Carli Kierny presiding, is set to last a month.
In his book, Davis said he was one of four men—all members of the South Side Compton Crips—who were in a white Cadillac that drew up alongside Shakur’s black BMW moments before the shooting, but he did not say who pulled the trigger.
The other three men, who have long been considered suspects in the shooting, later died in gang-related violence.
They included Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, who was arrested a month after Shakur’s killing in relation to an unrelated murder in Compton, California.
Charges were never brought against him in relation to Shakur’s death, and he was killed in an unrelated gang shootout in Compton in 1998.
The other two men who were in the car, Terry “Bubble Up” Brown and Deandrae “Freaky” Smith, were also killed before they could be charged over Shakur’s death.
The lyrics of many of Shakur’s songs were associated with the so-called gangsta rap genre.
“Will I survive? Will I die? Let’s picture the possibility,” he rapped in the title track from the All Eyez on Me album.
Rapper Tupac Shakur attends a voter registration event in South Central Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 1996. Frank Wiese/AP
On the night he was shot, Shakur was on his way from the MGM Grand, where the fight had taken place, to Club 662, where he was due to perform.
Knight was driving when the killers’ vehicle pulled up next to it at the intersection of East Flamingo Road and Koval Lane, a block east of the Strip in Las Vegas.
Among the list of witnesses due to testify at the trial is Leonard Jefferson, a photographer, who pulled up next to the BMW shortly before the shooting and took an iconic photo of Shakur.
Will Suge Knight Testify?
Others named on the witness list include Knight, who told TMZ in 2023 he would not testify.
Knight is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for running over and killing Terry Carter in 2015.
The incident stemmed from a dispute between Knight and an associate over the former music executive’s portrayal in a documentary, “Straight Outta Compton.”
Also named as potential witnesses are the former Las Vegas Mayor, Oscar Goodman, members of Shakur’s family, and Denvonta Lee, a former South Side Crips affiliate.
In his testimony to the grand jury, Lee testified that the South Side Crips and the Mob Piru Bloods were linked to Bad Boy Records and Death Row Records, respectively.
Lee also told the grand jury that Anderson did not have a clear target, so Smith took the gun and fired the fatal shots.
Jury selection is expected to last several days, and will be followed by the prosecution and the defense giving opening statements.
The courtroom is expected to be packed, and a live feed of the trial will broadcast it to millions on YouTube.
The prosecution team will be led by Clark County’s Chief Deputy District Attorney, Marc DiGiacomo, and his colleague Binu Palal.
Davis’s lead defense attorney is Michael Sanft.
The Epoch Times reached out to Sanft for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.