Keffe D sentenced to 40 years to life for Tupac murder

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, the former gang leader convicted of orchestrating the 1996 murder of American rap star Tupac Shakur, has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison, nearly three decades after the killing shocked the music world.

Davis, 63, was sentenced on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, by a court in Las Vegas, Nevada, after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in August.

 He received consecutive sentences of 20 years to life for murder and an additional 20 years to life for the use of a deadly weapon.

Shakur’s sister, Sekyiwa Shakur, addressed the court during the sentencing hearing, describing the lasting pain his death had caused their family.

“Losing Tupac has devastated my family for a long time,” she told the court, according to the account provided.

She also spoke of her brother’s ambitions and his desire to help build a better world, asking the judge to impose the harshest possible sentence.

Davis was given an opportunity to speak before sentencing. He maintained that he intended to challenge the verdict, saying he would appeal the case.

Judge Carli Kierny criticised Davis for attempting to portray himself as a changed man while minimising his responsibility for the killing.

“You don’t get to take a man from his family, you don’t get to take his very life, his whole future from him and just walk away from it,” she said, referring to Shakur.

Shakur was shot on September 7, 1996, while sitting in a car driven by Marion “Suge” Knight, the co-founder of Death Row Records, near the Las Vegas Strip.

The shooting followed an altercation earlier that evening involving members of rival gang-affiliated groups.

Shakur died in hospital six days later, aged 25.

Prosecutors argued that Davis helped organise the attack and supplied the firearm used in the shooting, although they did not accuse him of pulling the trigger himself.

Evidence included statements he made in media interviews and a 2019 memoir in which he described his involvement.

Davis’s defence argued that his accounts had been exaggerated and challenged the evidence against him.

For years, Shakur’s killing remained one of the most notorious unsolved cases in hip-hop history.

Investigators struggled to secure sufficient evidence and cooperation from witnesses before renewed attention to Davis’s public statements helped revive the case.

He was arrested in 2023 and became the only person charged in connection with the murder.

Shakur remains one of hip-hop’s most influential artists, remembered for songs including “California Love” and “Dear Mama”, as well as his work addressing poverty, racism and social inequality.

Photos