Duane "Keffe D" Davis Sentenced to Minimum 40 Years in Tupac Shakur Killing
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Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the former Los Angeles gang leader who for years boasted of his role in the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur before denying it at trial, was sentenced on Tuesday to a minimum of 40 years in prison.
The term is likely to see him die in custody. It arrives three decades after the shooting of one of the late 20th century's most influential hip hop artists, and following years of criticism over stalled investigations.
Davis, 63, once led a branch of the Crips, one of several rival gangs that controlled parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s. For years he evaded justice and appeared to consider himself untouchable, even writing in his memoir that he had ordered Shakur's killing.
"For three years, I've heard you say some variation of the same thing to law enforcement… in your book, and it's something like, 'Yeah, I was involved in this, but I'm different. I've moved on. I got out of Compton. I'm a grandfather now,'" Judge Carli Kierny told Davis as she delivered the sentence in a Las Vegas courtroom.
"I'm here to tell you that's not how this works."
"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 judge said.
Shakur was a central figure in the hip-hop feud between the US East and West Coasts. He was only 25 when he was shot dead in Las Vegas.
Evidence presented at trial showed that Davis ordered the September 7, 1996 killing after his nephew was beaten by members of Shakur's entourage at a Las Vegas casino.
About two hours after that confrontation, a gunman in a white Cadillac pulled up beside the BMW carrying the "California Love" artist at a red light and opened fire. Shakur died six days later.
Davis handed the weapon to a person in the Cadillac's back seat and ordered them to shoot. That person's identity has never been definitively established, and Davis is the only occupant of the Cadillac still living.
Marion "Suge" Knight, the Death Row Records co-founder who was driving the BMW, was wounded.
"Tupac Shakur's Bio in a glance"
Shakur's killing, which fuelled endless debate among fans over who was responsible and why, became one of America's most notorious cold cases.
Known for hits including "All Eyez on Me," Shakur, the son of a Black Panther activist, was raised in Harlem and Baltimore. He became the embodiment of California hip hop after signing with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records.
His sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, paid an emotional tribute on Tuesday, describing her brother as someone who "was born an icon."
She said their mother "consciously raised him to be a human rights activist, someone to stand up for those weaker and smaller than he was, and that's who he was to me and all the family. He was the person that you go to for protection.
"He dedicated his career to the advancement of his people. He was gentle and kind to women and children. He fed anyone he knew that didn't have. He was truly my shining star, my shining prince. He was who God trusted to take care of me."
Davis offered no expression of remorse before sentencing and said only that he would appeal the guilty verdict.
