Duane Davis arrives for the opening statements of his murder trial, related to the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur, at Clark County District Court in the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 17, 2026. (Photo by STEVE MARCUS / POOL / AFP)
Las Vegas: Rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead in an act of gang revenge ordered by a mobster who later boasted of it, jurors heard Monday, as one of America's most anticipated trials got under way, 30 years after the murder.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis, a one-time leader of the South Side Compton Crips, one of a patchwork of gangs that ran parts of Los Angeles in the 1990s, ordered the killing after his nephew had been beaten by a rival mob, prosecutor Binu Pilal told a Las Vegas court.
"On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur publicly, on camera, participated in a humiliating beating of Duane Davis's nephew, Orlando Anderson," he said.
"Then, two and a half hours later... Tupac is gunned down in a drive-by shooting from a white Cadillac in an act of revenge."
Pilal said Davis did not pull the trigger, but had handed the gun to someone sitting in the back seat of his car and ordered that person to shoot the rapper.
In repeated interviews -- with law enforcement, with media and ultimately in an autobiography -- Davis confessed to his part in the murder, Pilal said.
"Over the years, in private interviews, in public statements, and even in private calls, Duane Davis has repeatedly told us over and over again about the anger he felt, and his own role in the revenge drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur.
"And now, nearly 30 years later, we're going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable," he told the jury.
Davis, 63, denies all charges in the trial, which could last over a month. If convicted, he faces possible life in prison without parole.
