An image of Tupac Shakur in New York recalls the rap icon behind a court case reopened thirty years after his death. The trial centers on Keffe D’s alleged responsibility. Credit: JohnSeb / Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
Thirty years after the gunfire that took Tupac Shakur’s life, the trial is entering its first phase. Jury selection opens Monday, August 10, 2026, in Las Vegas. Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the only man charged, pleads not guilty. Prosecutors are not portraying him as the shooter. They want to prove that he organized a retaliatory strike and supplied the weapon. The case relies in part on his own accounts, now being challenged.
Prosecutors Target The Alleged Organizer
Duane Davis, 63, appears before the Clark County District Court, presided over by Judge Carli Kierny. He faces one count of murder with a deadly weapon, along with the alleged intent to promote, further, or aid a criminal gang. The trial is expected to last about four weeks, starting with jury selection.
The prosecution does not claim Keffe D pulled the trigger on the night of September 7, 1996. Its theory is different. Davis allegedly led a retaliatory mission and obtained a handgun. He then reportedly handed it to the men seated in the back of a white Cadillac. The jury will therefore have to assess his presumed criminal responsibility for organizing the killing, even if the shooter’s identity remains uncertain.
The defense rejects that scenario. Davis says he was in Los Angeles at the time. According to him, no physical evidence places him in the car in Las Vegas. These arguments, like the evidence the prosecution says it has, will still need to be tested in open court. Until the verdict, he is presumed innocent.
Keffe D’s Accounts At The Heart Of The Case
The case rests largely on the defendant’s own words. In his memoir Compton Street Legend, published in 2019, Davis says he was in the front seat of the Cadillac. He claims he passed a gun to the back seat. He does not consistently identify who would have fired it. Still, his public interviews and successive accounts helped reopen an investigation that had long gone cold, before his arrest in September 2023.
Since his indictment, Keffe D has disputed the value of those statements. He says his coauthor dramatized the book to make it more marketable and that his media remarks were exaggerated. The defense is therefore expected to ask jurors not to believe the accounts the prosecution plans to rely on most heavily.
Another fight concerns an interview Davis gave investigators in 2008 as part of a “proffer.” This procedure allows someone to provide information in exchange for limited protections on how it may be used. Davis says his statements were covered by a federal agreement and could not be used against him.
On November 4, 2025, the Nevada Supreme Court refused to throw out the indictment through an extraordinary procedure. It did not rule on Davis’s guilt or validate all of the prosecution’s evidence. Instead, its order noted that the indictment and the grand jury transcript were missing from the record submitted to the justices. It also said Davis had not shown the scope of the protection granted during a federal interview in 1998. According to the decision, he had not proven that it covered later exchanges or bound the State of Nevada.
The Night Of September 7, 1996
That evening, Tupac Shakur attends a Mike Tyson fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He is accompanied by Marion “Suge” Knight, head of his Death Row Records label. After the fight, the rapper, Knight, and several associates get into a brawl. Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, Davis’s nephew, is struck.
According to prosecutors, that altercation triggers revenge. Davis allegedly brought together Anderson, Deandrae “Freaky” Smith, and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown, then searched for Tupac Shakur and Suge Knight in Las Vegas. None of those three men, all of whom have since died, was tried for the rapper’s murder.
Later that night, a white Cadillac pulls alongside the black BMW driven by Suge Knight near the Strip. Several shots are fired. Knight is wounded, while Tupac Shakur, sitting in the passenger seat, is hit multiple times. The rapper dies from his injuries on September 13, 1996, at 25.
This overall timeline is established. By contrast, the exact role of each Cadillac occupant and the path of the gun remain at the center of the dispute. Thirty years after the events, prosecutors will have to connect Davis’s later accounts to independent evidence. They cannot simply show that he often told an incriminating version of that night.
Who Killed Tupac? What The Trial May Establish
The Keffe D trial is unlikely to answer the question “who killed Tupac?” with certainty. Prosecutors are not presenting Davis as the shooter. Orlando Anderson was long suspected, but he was never charged in the case. He denied any involvement before his death in 1998. Other accounts point to a second man seated in the back of the car, without any judgment ever establishing that version.
For the jury, the central question will be narrower: did Davis knowingly prepare and facilitate the attack? Prosecutors must show that his statements match verifiable facts. They must then persuade the jury that his alleged participation is enough to make him responsible for the murder. The defense, by contrast, will try to isolate contradictions, exaggerations, and gaps in corroboration.
The case is made more fragile by the passage of time. The Associated Press reported the grand jury testimony of former investigator Clifford Mogg. According to him, neither the weapon used nor the Cadillac was recovered. Orlando Anderson, Deandrae Smith, and Terry Brown, the three other men the case places in the Cadillac, have since died. Memories may also have faded. This context does not determine the verdict. It does, however, give particular weight to photographs, old statements, police records, and timeline cross-checks admitted at trial.
Many Witnesses, But A Still-Preliminary List
According to the Associated Press courtroom report, prosecutors are considering calling between 35 and 45 witnesses. That estimate does not mean all of them will testify. Jury selection may in particular lead lawyers to name people only to identify possible conflicts or biases among the candidates.
Among the expected witnesses are people who saw Tupac Shakur shortly before the shooting. The list also includes members of the relevant entourages, former police officers, and gang experts. According to the Associated Press, Leonard Jefferson is among those the prosecution plans to call. He took the last known photograph of the rapper alive. Indirect witnesses are also expected to describe what they knew about the rivalries and the group’s organization. Jurors will then have to distinguish personal observations, secondhand memories, and assumptions.
Suge Knight’s presence is not confirmed. The Associated Press notes that he is the only other living eyewitness among the occupants of the two vehicles. He is serving a 28-year sentence in California in another case. He had said he did not want to testify. Sean Combs does not appear on the publicly released witness lists. The old allegations involving him are not an established fact in this case.
Jury selection is expected to take several days, possibly the entire first week. Opening statements will follow, setting out each side’s strategy more precisely, and then the testimony will begin. The verdict will not depend on Tupac Shakur’s place in rap history. It will depend on whether prosecutors can turn Keffe D’s disputed accounts into proof beyond a reasonable doubt.