Prosecutors urged jurors to convict Duane Davis of orchestrating the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur, arguing that for years he repeatedly bragged about his involvement in the killing. The trial is occurring nearly 30 years after Shakur was shot dead in a Las Vegas drive-by.
Davis, 63, was arrested in 2023 following admissions in his memoir and numerous other public statements. "For nearly 18 years, Duane Davis has told police, television, books, YouTube interviewers — anybody that will listen he has told he is responsible for the murder of Tupac Shakur," prosecutor Binu Palal told jurors. "Tell him you hear him, find him guilty."
Prosecutors contend Davis was the mastermind behind the shooting, which they argue was an act of revenge. They allege that hours before the rapper's death, Shakur helped beat up Davis' nephew, Orlando Anderson, who was a fellow gang member. This, they claim, gave Davis the "ultimate green light to do something to their ass," as he reportedly wrote in his 2019 memoir, "Compton Street Legend."
Davis's defense countered that his statements were fabrications and his memoir was fiction, comparing it to a movie. "What the state wants you to do is take this book as proof," defense attorney Michael Sanft told the jury. "You are reading a book that is fiction and not fact, and the state wants you to believe that this is somehow a confession."
The defense also argued that prosecutors have not provided evidence placing Davis in Las Vegas on the night of the shooting. "They have nothing in this case that says that man was in Las Vegas on September 7th, 1996," Sanft stated. "There’s not one thing that says my client Duane Davis was in Las Vegas on that night of the shooting of Tupac Shakur."
Prosecutors are pursuing charges of murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. If convicted, Davis would be the only person convicted in Shakur's murder. The shots that killed Shakur have long been attributed to Orlando Anderson, who was killed in a separate shootout two years after the rapper's death.
According to prosecutors, Davis was known as a "shot-caller" within his local Crips gang, and the public assault on his nephew by Shakur, who was reportedly associated with a rival Bloods gang, necessitated a response in the context of gang life in the 1990s. "You had no choice, you could not go back to Compton after being beaten publicly," Palal said.