Tupac Shakur Murder Trial Opens in Las Vegas: Prosecution Says Duane Davis Confessed in 2008
The murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the man accused of orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed Tupac Shakur, opened before jurors in Las Vegas on 17 August 2026, nearly three decades after the rapper's death.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal delivered the prosecution's opening statement, telling jurors that Davis described his own role in the shooting during a "secret 2008 interview" with authorities. In that recorded interview, Davis said his vehicle made a U-turn and pulled up alongside a black BMW carrying Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Suge Knight near the Las Vegas Strip, then handed a gun to a person in the back seat before shots rang out. Palal identified that person as Davis's nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, who allegedly fired the weapon from the back seat. The motive, the prosecutor said, was Davis's "visceral anger" over Shakur getting into a fistfight with Anderson inside the MGM Grand hours earlier, after a Mike Tyson boxing match. Rolling Stone
The prosecution alleges that Davis supplied the .40-caliber Glock pistol used in the shooting, which also wounded Knight. Under Nevada law, Davis can be charged with murder if he took part in the shooting even if he did not fire the weapon himself. Reuters
Davis's defence lawyer, Michael Sanft, pushed back hard on the prosecution's account. He asked why his client was never charged after the alleged 2008 confession, and questioned why investigators failed to conduct follow-up interviews to corroborate Davis's statements. Sanft told the jury not to believe Davis's own statements about his role in the murder. CNN
The defence also suggested Davis was not in Las Vegas the night of the shooting, noting that investigators never recovered receipts, credit card transactions, or photographs placing Davis at the MGM Grand. Rolling Stone
Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to a single count of murder. He has been held without bail since his arrest in September 2023. His lawyers say he left gang life and the drug trade in 2008 and became an oil refinery inspector, later settling as a retired grandfather and cancer survivor in a Las Vegas suburb.
The three other men who were in the Cadillac with Davis on the night of the shooting have all since died, leaving Davis as the only surviving person investigators have charged. Reuters
Jury selection lasted four days before opening statements began. ABC News 4
Shakur was 25 when he was shot on 7 September 1996, on the Las Vegas Strip. He died six days later in a hospital. The case went unsolved for 27 years before Davis was charged, making this trial the first time anyone has faced a jury for the killing.
