Start of Tupac Shakur murder trial revisits LA gang wars, defence lawyer says Duane Davis ‘full of crap’

Three decades after the murder of Tupac Shakur, the hip-hop legend gunned down in the prime of his career, the trial of the only person ever to be charged in connection with the killing began in a Nevada courtroom Monday.

Duane Keith Davis, whose memoir of gangland stories is being used against him in the case, was described as responsible for the “orchestration” of Shakur’s killing on the night of September 7, 1996.

Binu Palal, the prosecutor, told jurors in the Las Vegas courtroom that Shakur’s murder stemmed from a series of gang-related grievances and countergrievances including an “act of disrespect”: the yanking of a gold chain from a man’s neck at a Los Angeles shopping mall.

Davis was charged three years ago with one count of murder with use of a deadly weapon, the culmination of what was a long-stalled investigation. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The killing of Shakur was a seismic trauma for hip-hop, robbing the genre of one of its most popular and creative artists of the 1990s.

Shakur was shot four times and died in a hospital less than a week later. The son of Black Panther parents, he was a performing arts student and a hip-hop backup dancer before his solo career took off in the early 1990s. He would become one of the most prominent rappers of all time.

But that vast influence in American pop culture was starkly overshadowed Monday by the details presented by Palal, who recounted in the courtroom a series of magnified slights and animosities. The incident with the chain was connected to the beating of Davis’ nephew at a Las Vegas casino, Palal said.

Davis obtained a firearm and sought revenge for that beating, Palal told jurors, leading to the shooting of Shakur near the Las Vegas Strip.

The case is built largely on Davis’ memoir and interviews that he gave, as well as questioning he underwent by various law enforcement agencies that for years were kept secret as part of an arrangement with the government. Palal played excerpts from Davis’ questioning and interviews during his opening statements.

Davis, who once described himself as a member of the Crips, the gang with Los Angeles origins, is not accused of killing Shakur, but of providing the gun that was used in the drive-by shooting.

In court Monday, Davis’ lawyer, Michael Sanft, said too much time had elapsed for memories about the killing to be accurate. He also described his client, who goes by the nickname Keffe D, as unreliable with the facts, at one point calling him “full of crap.” To underline the point, he put the word “bullshit” on a screen, telling the jury that his client “was known” for it.

“The state cannot prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt the claim that Keffe had anything to do with first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon,” he said.

In interviews and the memoir, Davis offered the road map that helped prosecutors build their murder case. Davis said that on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, he and others had armed themselves and waited in a nightclub parking lot after a prizefight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon in Las Vegas.

Davis described being in the front passenger seat of a white Cadillac and said he had hoped to confront Shakur and Marion Knight, a rap mogul known as Suge, who were both associated with the Bloods, the rival gang to the Crips.

“I’m one of the only living eyewitnesses to Tupac’s killing,” Davis wrote in his 2019 book, “Compton Street Legend,” which was co-written by Yusuf Jah, an author of other books on gang life.

The book says that “fireworks” started when Davis saw Shakur reach down for what he thought was a gun.

“One of my guys from the back seat grabbed the Glock and started bustin’ back,” the book says.

Parts of the book were read aloud in 2023 to the grand jury that ultimately indicted Davis.

At times, Davis’ memoir is remarkably detailed. He said that after the shooting, the men left the Cadillac and walked to their hotel, picking up the car the next day and taking it back to California. It was cleaned and painted before it was returned to a rental agency days later, at which point it was “too late for any forensics to be accurate and reliable,” he said.

Soon after Shakur’s death, more than 20 people were arrested in connection with the shooting. But no charges were filed. The death six months later of the Notorious B.I.G., Shakur’s friend turned rival, fueled conspiracy theories as the investigation stalled.

The killings spurred books, podcasts, TV series and films, further elevating Shakur, who was known for albums such as “Me Against the World,” on which he rapped about a life imperiled by violence, to mythic status in hip-hop.

After opening statements Monday, the first witness called by the prosecution was Garry Dale, a police officer in Las Vegas on bike patrol the night of the shooting. He said that he stopped a black BMW for having no back license plate and that Shakur was inside. Ten minutes later, Dale testified, he saw Shakur being pulled out of the car with gunshot wounds. Dale said he rode with Shakur in an ambulance to a hospital, asking the rapper who had shot him.

“‘No, we’ll take care of it,’” Dale quoted Shakur as saying. “I couldn’t get him to talk any further.”