American music executive and convict, co-founder of Death Row Records
Duane “Keffe D” Davis’s attempt to bar the 2019 memoir Compton Street Legend and related police statements from being used at trial has been denied, keeping those statements admissible as prosecutors prepare for an August trial in Las Vegas over the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur.
Prosecutors have proceeded with the Tupac Shakur murder case. Duane “Keffe D” Davis faces a murder-with-a-weapon charge for allegedly orchestrating the 1996 Las Vegas drive-by that killed the rapper; Davis has pleaded not guilty. Opening statements are underway as prosecutors expect to call dozens of witnesses over a month-long trial.
The case against Duane “Keffe D” Davis has moved toward a Las Vegas trial over the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur. Prosecutors say Davis ordered the drive-by shooting; Davis pleads not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted. The trial, beginning this week, revisits the East Coast–West Coast feud and the Bloods–Crips dynamics that defined 1990s hip-hop.
Davis has described the Las Vegas shooting involving Tupac Shakur and Death Row co-founder Suge Knight. He says he was in the car with Anderson and that he passed the gun back after Anderson fired; prosecutors rely on his police interviews and a 2019 memoir as key evidence.