Tupac Shakur killer sentenced to 40 years in prison

Former gang leader Duane 'Keffe D' Davis sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur.

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Duane 'Keffe D' Davis, a former Los Angeles gang leader, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting death of hip-hop star Tupac Shakur. The sentence was handed down by a Las Vegas court on Tuesday.

Davis was found guilty of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon in August. He was convicted of ordering the killing of Shakur, who was wounded in a drive-by shooting on September 7, 1996, and died in a hospital six days later at the age of 25.

The killing went unsolved for years until Davis gave interviews and wrote about his role in the shooting in a 2019 tell-all memoir. Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo said Tuesday that Davis was trying to profit off the killing, and deserved the maximum sentence.

Davis' lawyer said he plans to appeal the verdict. Shakur was an award-winning rap artist, activist, and actor who sold over 75 million records worldwide, many posthumously.

The murder of Shakur, which silenced one of rap's most commercially successful and influential artists, heightened the image of violence permeating 1990s hip-hop culture while stoking the infamous East Coast-West Coast 'gangsta' rap feud of the era.

Despite Davis' conviction, the question of who pulled the trigger in the fatal shooting of the 25-year-old rap legend has never been conclusively decided. Davis is the only person who was in the Cadillac that evening who is still alive.